discuss the subject again. It does no good, and we should never be of
the same opinion."

Not without embarrassment, now that he had said his say, he turned to
the door. But Madeleine was not in the least angry. She gave him her
hand, and said, with a smile, yet gravely, too: "Agreed, Maurice! We
will not speak of Louise again."




V.



He shunned Madeleine for days after this. He was morose and unhappy,
and brooded darkly over the baseness of wagging tongues. For the first
time in his life he had come into touch with slander, that invisible
Hydra, and straightway it seized upon the one person to whom he was
not indifferent. In this mood it was a relief to him that certain
three windows in the BRUDERSTRASSE remained closed and shuttered; with
the load of malicious gossip fresh on his mind, he chose rather not to
see her; he must first accustom himself to it, as to the scar left by
a wound.

He did not, of course, believe what Madeleine, with her infernal
frankness, had told him; but the knowledge that such a report was
abroad, depressed him unspeakably: it took colour from the sky and
light from the sun. Sometimes in these days, as he sat at his piano,
he had a sudden fit of discouragement, which made it seem not worth