ou came--oh, so happy!"--with a sudden yearning
recollection of the days of unawakened girlhood. "If--if you had let
me alone, I should have been happy still."

The unthinking selfishness of youth rang in her voice, asserting its
infinite demand for the joy and pleasure of life.

"And I?" he said, very low. "Does my unhappiness count for nothing?
I'm paying too. God knows, I wish we had never met."

Never to have met! Not to have known all that those months of
friendship and a single hour of love had held! The words brought a
sudden awakening to Diana--a new, wonderful knowledge that, cost what
they might in bitterness and future pain, she would rather bear the
cost than know her life emptied of those memories.

She had ceased crying. After a few moments she spoke with a gentle,
wistful composure.

"I was wrong, Max. You're not to blame--you couldn't help it any more
than I could."

"I might have gone away--kept away from you," he said tonelessly.

A faint, wintry little smile curved her lips.

"I'm glad you didn't."

"Diana!" He sprang forward impetuously. "Do you mean that?"

She nodded slowly.

"Yes. Even if--if we can't ever marry, we've had . . . to-day."

A smouldering fire lit itself in the man's blue eyes. He had spoken
but the bare truth when he had said that warmer blood ran in his veins
than that of the cold northern peoples.

"Yes," he said, his voice tense. "We've had to-day."

Diana trembled a little. The memory of that fierce, wild love-making
of his rushed over her once more, and the primitive woman in her longed
to yield to its mastery. But the cooler characteristics of her nature
bade her pause and weigh the full significance of marrying a man whose
life was tinged with mystery, and who frankly acknowledged that he bore
a secret which must remain hidden, even from his wife.

It would be taking a leap in the dark, and Diana shrank from it.

"I must have time to think," she repeated. "I can't decide to-day."

"No," he said, "you're right. I've known that all the time,
only--only"--his voice shook--"the touch of you, the nearness of you,
blinded me." He paused. "Don't keep me waiting for your answer longer
than you can help, Diana," he added, with a quiet intensity.

"You'll go away from Crailing?" she asked nervously.

He smiled a little sadly.

"Yes, I'll go away. I'll leave you quite free to make your decision,"
he replied.

She breathed a sigh of relief. S