ord himself
had not been able to lessen her tenderness towards the man who had come
into her life at the moment when she needed him most, and brought solace
to her sore heart. It was cruelly hard to be obliged to bring pain and
disappointment to so generous a lover. She flinched and coloured at the
thought of her own conduct as viewed from the outside--just the weak,
commonplace story of the pretty girl who starts on a voyage which is to
bring her to a waiting lover, meets another man _en route_, and is false
to her tryst,--but it was typical of Katrine's conception of the
character of her unknown lover, that through all her troubled thoughts
the conviction remained that Jim would understand,--that however he
might suffer he would neither be bitter nor unjust.

She sighed, and bracing herself resolutely, tore open the envelope. The
blood rushed to her face as she read the opening words:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"My Own Katrine,

"No! I am not breaking my truce. This little breathing space between
the sea voyage and the start up-country doesn't count in the scheme.
It's a No-man's land, of which this man would be a fool if he didn't
take possession forthwith!

"Besides, beloved, there are things that I want to say; things that
_need_ to be said... Your journey is nearly over, our meeting is close
at hand, and if the truth were known there's more fear than expectation
in your heart! I know you too well not to realise that--_but the fear
must go_! Get it out of your head once for all, little girl, that you
have anything to dread from me. I want you, I want you badly, but most
of all I want your happiness. That sounds the sort of thing one reads
in books--just a bit too lofty and impersonal to be true, but if you
come to worry it out, it's only a higher kind of selfishness. Once love
with your own heart and soul, love some one, that is to say, _more than
yourself_, and as the most obvious of consequences, happiness is
impossible for yourself unless it has first and foremost filled that
other heart. Don't worry yourself by any idea that you are pledged to
me, in honour bound, or any nonsense of the kind. You are _not_; you
are as free as air. If you should happen to like another man better
than me (you won't!) I'd help you to him. If you don't want me (you
will!) I'll stand aside. Dear little girl, be aisy! I'm on your side.

"That `mad' letter of you