If I can
be of use here, I'd rather stay than go anywhere on earth."

"God bless you!" he said, and gripped her hand.

That was the signing of the agreement which resulted in four years of
ceaseless service. At the beginning Meriel had contemplated a stay of a
few months; but with every week that passed she seemed more firmly
riveted in her post. After each breakdown, Flora's dread of being alone
with her husband increased in violence, while he shrank more sensitively
from the services of a hireling. They needed her, and she stayed on and
on, at first provisionally; later, as a matter of course.

From the beginning Sterne had little hope of his wife's reformation, for
he realised that her weakness was of several years' growth, and that the
inherent instability of her character unfitted her for the prolonged
struggle which lay ahead. As a matter of fact, after the first passion
of remorse had worn itself out, the whole of Flora's energies were
expended in the attempt to deceive her companions, and to discover
secret methods of indulging her craving. The history of those four
years was one of recurrent disappointment. The last remnant of beauty
died out of Flora's face; Sterne's dark hair was streaked with grey,
Mend's features were fined to a delicate sharpness; her eyes had the
pathetic wistfulness of a dumb animal. From the first moment of meeting
her heart had gone out to Geoffrey Sterne; before she had been three
months under his roof she loved him with an absorbing passion, and for
four long years she had stood by, watching his torture, holding her love
in check. Surely no man and woman were ever thrown together in more
intimate relationship. Night after night they wrestled together against
the demon which destroyed their peace; week after week, month after
month, they planned and consulted, toiled and failed, hoped and
sorrowed,--together, always together; virtually alone, yet always with
that pitiful presence holding them apart.

Sterne was as chivalrous to his friend as to his wife. Never by look or
deed did he pass the borders of friendship. With one part of her nature
Meriel was thankful for the fact. It would have marred her admiration
of the man's character if he had made love to the woman who was
ministering to his wife. With another part of her nature she longed
fiercely, hungrily, to feel the touch of his lips, the grasp of his
arms. There were times when she was shaken with envy of the p