"Well!" he said, as I came back; "I wanted knowledge, and I certainly
know something I didn't a month ago." And herewith, calmly and
succinctly enough, as if dismay had worn itself out, he related the
history of the foregoing days. He touched lightly on details; he
evidently never was to gush as freely again as he had done during the
prosperity of his suit. He had been accepted one evening, as explicitly
as his imagination could desire, and had gone forth in his rapture and
roamed about till nearly morning in the gardens of the
Conversation-house, taking the stars and the perfumes of the summer night
into his confidence. "It is worth it all, almost," he said, "to have
been wound up for an hour to that celestial pitch. No man, I am sure,
can ever know it but once." The next morning he had repaired to Madame
Blumenthal's lodging and had been met, to his amazement, by a naked
refusal to see him. He had strode about for a couple of hours--in
another mood--and then had returned to the charge. The servant handed
him a three-cornered note; it contained these words: "Leave me alone to-
day; I will give you ten minutes to-morrow evening." Of the next thirty-
six hours he could give no coherent account, but at the appointed time
Madame Blumenthal had received him.
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