ou like, Sammy dear."

"They'll take you for my sister," said Sam, disgusted.

"Or your nurse; John, what _is_ that man bellowing through the
megaphone?"

"Our train," said Burleson, picking up the satchels. He dropped them
again to shake the hands that were offered:

"Good-bye, John, dear old fellow! You'll get all over this thing in a
jiffy out there You'll be back in no time at all! Don't worry, and get
well!"

He smiled confidently and shook all their hands Rita's pretty face was
pale; she let Ogilvy kiss her cheek, shook hands with Annan, and then,
turning to Neville, put both hands on his shoulders and kissed him on
the mouth.

"Give her her chance, Kelly," she whispered ... "And it shall be
rendered unto you seven-fold."

"No, Rita; it never will be now."

"Who knows?"

"Rita! Rita!" he said under his breath, "when I am ending, she must
begin.... You are right: this world needs her. Try as I might, I never
could be worth what she is worth without effort. It is my life which
does not matter, not hers. I will do what ought to be done. Don't be
afraid. I will do it. And thank God that it is not too late."

That night, seated at his desk in the studio, he looked at the
calendar. It was the thirteenth day since he had heard from her; the
last day but two of the fifteen days she had asked for. The day after
to-morrow she would have come, or would have written him that she was
renouncing him forever for his own sake. Which might it have been? He
would never know now.

He wrote her:

"Dearest of women, Rita has been loyal to you. It was only when I
explained to her for what purpose I wished your address that she wisely
gave it to me.

"Dearest, from the beginning of our acquaintance and afterward when it
ripened into friendship and finally became love, upon you has rested the
burden of decision; and I have permitted it.

"Even now, as I am writing here in the studio, the burden lies heavily
upon your girl's shoulders and is weighting your girl's heart. And it
must not be so any longer.

"I have never, perhaps, really meant to be selfish; a man in love really
doesn't know what he means. But now I know what I have done; and what
must be undone.

"You were perfectly right. It was for you to say whether you would marry
me or not. It was for you to decide whether it was possible or
impossible for you to appear as my wife in a world in which you had had
no experience. It was for you to generously decide