“With⁠—well,” he answered, breaking off, “yes! Say with him too. Will you please come to the understanding that there must be another interview under more favourable circumstances, before the whole case can be submitted?”

“I don’t,” said Lizzie, shaking her head, “understand your meaning, Mr. Headstone.”

“Limit my meaning for the present,” he interrupted, “to the whole case being submitted to you in another interview.”

“What case, Mr. Headstone? What is wanting to it?”

“You⁠—you shall be informed in the other interview.” Then he said, as if in a burst of irrepressible despair, “I⁠—I leave it all incomplete! There is a spell upon me, I think!” And then added, almost as if he asked for pity, “Good night!”