fidence, Philippa. You know that I
love you as a man loves only once. It sounds like an empty phrase to say
it, but if you will give me your life to take care of, I shall only have
one thought--to make you happy. Could I succeed? That is what you have
to ask yourself. You are not happy now. Do you think that, if you stay
on here, the future is likely to be any better for you?"

She shook her head drearily.

"I believe," she confessed, "that I have reached the very limit of my
endurance."

He came a little nearer. His hands rested upon her shoulders very
lightly, yet they seemed like some enveloping chain. More than ever in
those few moments she realised the spiritual qualities of his face.
His eyes were aglow. His voice, a little broken with emotion, was
wonderfully tender. He looked at her as though she were some precious
and sacred thing.

"I am rich," he said, "and there are few parts of the world where we
could not live. We could find our way to the islands, like your great
writer Stevenson in whom you delight so much; islands full of colour,
and wonderful birds, and strange blue skies; islands where the peace of
the tropics dulls memory, and time heats only in the heart. The world is
a great place, Philippa, and there are corners where the sordid crime of
this ghastly butchery has scarcely been heard of, where the horror and
the taint of it are as though they never existed, where the sun and
moon are still unashamed, and the grey monsters ride nowhere upon the
sapphire seas."

"It sounds like a fairy tale," she murmured, with a half pathetic smile.

"Love always fashions life like a fairy tale," he replied.

She stood perfectly still.

"You must have my answer now, at this moment?" she asked at last.

"There are yet some hours," he told her. "I have a very powerful
automobile here, and to-night there is a full moon. If we leave here at
ten o'clock, we can catch the steamer to-morrow afternoon. Everything
has been made very easy for me. And fortune, too, is with us--your
vindictive commandant, Captain Griffiths, is in London. You see,
you have the whole afternoon for thought. I want you only for your
happiness. At ten o'clock I shall come here. If you are coming with me,
you must be ready then. You understand?"

"I understand," she assented, under her breath. "And now," she went
on, raising her eyes, "somehow I think that you are right. It would be
better for you and Dick not to meet."

"I am sure of i