.«
    »She sometimes spilled the draught from my cup, and stole the food from my
plate; and when she had kept me unfed for a day (and that did not suit me, for I
am a man accustomed to take my meals with reasonable relish, and to ascribe due
importance to the rational enjoyment of creature comforts) -«
    »I know you do. I can tell what sort of dinners you like best - perfectly
well. I know precisely the dishes you prefer -«
    »She robbed these dishes of flavour, and made a fool of me besides. I like
to sleep well. In my quiet days, when I was my own man, I never quarrelled with
the night for being long, nor cursed my bed for its thorns. She changed all
this.«
    »Mr. Moore -«
    »And having taken from me peace of mind, and ease of life, she took from me
herself; quite coolly, - just as if, when she was gone, the world would be all
the same to me. I knew I should see her again at some time. At the end of two
years, it fell out that we encountered again under her own roof, where she was
mistress. How do you think she bore herself towards me, Miss Keeldar?«
    »Like one who had profited well by lessons learned from yourself.«
    »She received me haughtily: she meted out a wide space between us, and kept
me aloof by the reserved gesture, the rare and alienated glance, the word calmly
civil.«
    »She was an excellent pupil! Having seen you distant, she at once learned to
withdraw. Pray, sir, admire, in her hauteur, a careful improvement on your own
coolness.«
    »Conscience, and honour, and the most despotic necessity, dragged me apart
from her, and kept me sundered with ponderous fetters. She was free: she might
have been clement.«
    »Never free to compromise her self-respect: to seek where she had been
shunned.«
    »Then she was inconsistent: she tantalized as before. When I thought I had
made up my mind to seeing in her only a lofty stranger, she would suddenly show
me such a glimpse of loving simplicity - she would warm me with such a beam of
reviving sympathy, she would gladden an hour with converse so gentle, gay, and
kindly - that I could no more shut my heart on her image, than I could close
that door against her presence. Explain why she distressed me so.«
    »She could not bear