ity. "You see, I was ill,"
she said. "I--I didn't remember. I don't remember all the details even
now. I only know that--it happened. Max told me so--when I asked him."

"Good heavens above!" ejaculated Noel.

She went on drearily, as if he had not spoken. "That was the end of
everything between us; and it's just as well now. For I shouldn't have
been able to marry him even if it hadn't been."

"Why not?" said Noel.

She looked away from him, and was silent.

He leaned down towards her, and spoke quickly, urgently.

"Olga dear, forgive me for asking, but I must know. Don't you really
love him?"

She made a little unconscious gesture of the hands as of pushing
something from her. "No," she said.

"But you did?" he insisted.

She leaned her elbow on her knee, lodging her chin upon her hand. "I
thought I did--once," she said slowly. "But--it was a mistake."

"It couldn't have been," he said.

She nodded slowly two or three times, not turning her head. "Yes," she
said, with the air of one clinching an argument. "It was a mistake."

Noel was silent for a few moments. There was something in her set
profile that hurt him. He longed to see her full face. But she did not
move. She seemed almost to have forgotten that he was there.

He moved at last, bending nearer. "Olga!" he whispered.

"Yes?" Still she did not turn.

He slipped down to his knees beside her. "Olga!" he said again very
pleadingly.

She stirred then, stirred and looked him full in the eyes. And all his
life Noel remembered the awful despair that looked out at him from her
soul "I--can't!" she said.

He clasped her two hands between his own. "Can't you even think of it?"
he urged, under his breath. "You know--you said--you'd have married me
if--if--poor old Max hadn't come first. I wouldn't cut him out for
worlds; but that's happened already, hasn't it? Surely there's no one
else?"

But Olga made no answer. Only the despair in her eyes deepened to a dumb
agony.

"Darling," he whispered, gathering her hands up and holding them against
his face, "I'd be awfully good to you. And I want you--I do want you.
Won't you even consider it?"

A great shiver went through Olga.

"Won't you have my love?" he said.

But still for a little she was silent. It seemed that no words would
come.

Then, as he pressed his lips to the hands he had taken, something seemed
suddenly to break loose within her. With a great sob she leaned her head
upon his shou