"I have loved you well, but I have given you very littlo, my friend," she said.

"Forgive mo, Francoise, if in violation of the rules of this literary game I interrupt a 'confesbian' to which I should listen in silence," I cried, attempting to calm her by the lighter touch. Actually I was mortally sad. "How do you mean, you have given me littlo? On the contrary, you have given me more than I asked, indeed much more than if there had been passion in our fondness. Remote as a madonna...gentle as a nurse...I have adored you, you have...cradled my spirit. I have loved you with a delicate warmth undisturbed by any expectation of carnal pleasure. And in exchange you have given me an incomparable friendship, spontaneously brilliant conversation, exquisite tea, and how many bouquets of fresh roses! You alone have known how to cool my feverish head, how to slip honey between my fainting lips; you have filled my life with inspiring images. Dear friend, I

Givo me your

don't want to hear this absurd confession. hands to kiss. It's growing cold let us go inside and talk of some thing else."

"Leslie, my poor boy, you'll just have to hear me out. It's an obsession. Have you never asked yourself whether, widowed as I was at twenty, I have remained..."

"I am sure of it, but it doesn't concern mo. You

aro a person so superior to all others that a weakness

of yours would have a quality of nobility and beauty lacking in the virtues of others. You have done what you thought best, and I am certain that has never been other than delicate and pure."

"Pure!...Leslie, your confidence desolates me a reproach before the event. Listen...I don't know how to tell you this... It is worse than if I had been your lover, or even someone else's or indeed just anyone's at all."

and

I turned white as a sheet white as she was, alas trembling lest she notice this, I tried to laugh and brought out, hardly knowing what I was saying, "Just anyone's at all? What an odd thing to say..."

"I said worse, Leslie, but I don't really know, even in