"Not complete?" I echoed.

"No. It would be if I returned it. Do you understand? There is in
this world a woman you will truly love and who will return your love in
its fulness. Will you meet? That is in the hands of your destinies.
Shall I meet my ideal? Who knows? But till I do, I shall remain an
old maid."

I nodded wearily. A dissertation on affinities seemed ill-timed.

"And now," she said, "this beautiful friendship of ours must come to an
end." And there were tears in her eyes.

"Yes," said I, twisting and untwisting the shreds of my gloves. It
seemed as though the world had slipped from under my feet and I was
whirling into nothingness. "My heart is very heavy."

"Jack, if you talk like that," hastily, "you will have me crying before
all these people."

Unfortunately Ethel turned and saw the tears in her cousin's eyes.

"Mercy! what is the matter?" she asked.

"Jack has been telling me a very pathetic story," said Phyllis, with a
pity in her eyes.

"Yes; something that happened to-night," said I, staring at the
programme, but seeing nothing, nothing.