le."

"Do you remember our talk on board the dear old _Persian_? Yes, we had
so many, you were going to say; but I mean our first one, the first
serious one--that night, leaning over the side, I asked you: 'Shall I
make a success of life?' Do you remember your answer?"

"As well as though it were yesterday. I replied that the chances were
pretty even, inclining, if anything, to the negative. Well, and was I
right?"

Lilith turned away her head. He could see that the tears were not far
away. Her lips were quivering.

"I likewise told you you were groping after an ideal," he went on.

"And I found it. Perhaps I had already found it when I asked the
question. Oh, Laurence, life is all wrong, all horribly wrong and out of
joint," she burst forth, with a passionate catch in her voice, as she
turned and faced him once more.

"Yes, I know it is. I came to that conclusion a goodish while ago, and
have never seen any reason since to doubt its absolute accuracy."

"All out of joint!" she repeated hopelessly. "It is as if our lives had
been placed opposite each other on parallel lines, and then one of the
lines had been moved. Then our lives lay apart forever."

"That's about it."

She was not deceived. His tone was hard; to all appearances indifferent.
Yet not to her ear did it so ring. She knew the immensity of effort that
kept it--and what lay behind it--under control. Then she broke down
entirely.

"Laurence, my love--my doubly lost love!" she uttered through a choking
whirlwind of sobs. "Teach me some of your strength--some of your
hardness. Then, perhaps, I can bear things better."

"A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, remember, and perhaps you
have shown me the weak link here--that of my 'hardness.' Child, I would
not teach you an iota of it, if I could. It is good for me, but no
woman was ever the better for it yet. But keep yourself in hand now. We
are in a public place, although a comparatively secluded one. For your
own sake, do not give way. And for the very reason that I feared to stir
up old memories, I had intended to go through without attempting to see
you once more. Tell me one thing--would it have been better had I done
so?"

"Better had you done so? No--no. A thousand times no--Laurence, my
darling. I shall treasure up this last hour we have spent
together--shall treasure it as the sweetest of memories as long as life
shall last."

"And I shall treasure up that reply. Listen! Twice ha