 must put some sort of a finish on it. There must
be a conclusion, there must be finality.«
    So he talked to himself, but aloud he said nothing whatever.
    »What has been, has been,« she continued. »There is nothing that I regret. I
hope you regret nothing -«
    She waited for him to speak.
    »Oh, I regret nothing,« he said, accommodatingly.
    »Good then,« she answered, »good then. Then neither of us cherishes any
regrets, which is as it should be.«
    »Quite as it should be,« he said aimlessly.
    She paused to gather up her thread again.
    »Our attempt has been a failure,« she said. »But we can try again
elsewhere.«
    A little flicker of rage ran through his blood. It was as if she were
rousing him, goading him. Why must she do it?
    »Attempt at what?« he asked.
    »At being lovers, I suppose,« she said, a little baffled, yet so trivial she
made it all seem.
    »Our attempt at being lovers has been a failure?« he repeated aloud.
    To himself he was saying, »I ought to kill her here. There is only this
left, for me to kill her.« A heavy, overcharged desire to bring about her death
possessed him. She was unaware.
    »Hasn't it?« she asked. »Do you think it has been a success?«
    Again the insult of the flippant question ran through his blood like a
current of fire.
    »It had some of the elements of success, our relationship,« he replied. »It
- might have come off.«
    But he paused before concluding the last phrase. Even as he began the
sentence, he did not believe in what he was going to say. He knew it never could
have been a success.
    »No,« she replied. »You cannot love.«
    »And you?« he asked.
    Her wide, dark-filled eyes were fixed on him like two moons of darkness.
    »I couldn't love you,« she said, with stark, cold truth.
    A blinding flash went over his brain, his body jolted. His heart had burst
into flame. His consciousness was gone into his wrists, into his hands. He was
one blind, incontinent desire to kill her. His wrists were bursting, there would
be no satisfaction till his hands had closed on her.
    But even before his body swerved forward on
