length, emboldened by his intense desire to help, and putting
aside every obstacle, he had taken her hand and had said with all his
heart in his voice:

"Jane, you once told me you loved me. Is it still true?"

He remembered how at first she had not answered, and how after a moment
she had slowly withdrawn her hand and had replied in a voice almost
inarticulate, so great was her emotion.

"Yes, John, and always will be, but it can never go beyond that--never,
never. Don't ask many more questions. Don't talk to me about it. Not
now, John--not now! Don't hate me! Let us be as we have always
been--please, John! You would not refuse me if you knew."

He had started forward to take her in his arms; to insist that now
every obstacle was removed she should give him at once the lawful right
to protect her, but she had shrunk back, the palms of her hands held
out as barriers, and before he could reason with her Martha had entered
with something for little Archie, and so the interview had come to an
end.

Then, still absorbed in his thoughts, his eyes suddenly brightened and
a certain joy trembled in his heart as he remembered that with all
these misgivings and doubts there were other times--and their sum was
in the ascendency--when she showed the same confidence in his judgement
and the same readiness to take his advice; when the old light would
once more flash in her eyes as she grasped his hand and the old sadness
again shadow her face when his visits came to an end. With this he must
be for a time content.

These and a hundred other thoughts raced through Doctor John's mind as
he sat to-night in his study chair, the lamplight falling on his open
books and thin, delicately modelled hands.

Once he rose from his seat and began pacing his study floor, his hands
behind his back, his mind on Jane, on her curious and incomprehensible
moods, trying to solve them as he walked, trusting and leaning upon him
one day and shrinking from him the next. Baffled for the hundredth time
in this mental search, he dropped again into his chair, and adjusting
the lamp, pulled his books toward him to devote his mind to their
contents. As the light flared up he caught the sound of a step upon the
gravel outside, and then a heavy tread upon the porch. An instant later
his knocker sounded. Doctor Cavendish gave a sigh--he had hoped to have
one night at home--and rose to open the door.

Captain Nat Holt stood outside.

His pea-jacket was bu