moment up this byway."

"No, let us walk straight on."

"I beg of you!--Now you are kind. I am going to dine at a
restaurant. Usually, I eat my dinner at home--a bad dinner and a
cheerless room. On such an evening as this I can't go back and
appease hunger in that animal way. But when I sit down in the
restaurant I shall be alone. It's miserable to see the groups of
people enjoying themselves all round and to sit lonely. I can't tell
you how long it is since I had a meal in company. Will you come and
dine with me?"

"I can't do that."

"Where's the impossibility?"

"I shouldn't like to do it."

"But would it be so very disagreeable to sit and talk? Or, I won't
ask you to talk; only to let me talk to you. Give me an hour or two
of your time--that's what I ask. It means so much to me, and to
you, what does it matter?"

Eve walked on in silence; his entreaties kept pace with her. At
length she stopped.

"It's all the same to me--if you wish it----"

"Thank you a thousand times!"