mean to be. I have been often told I didn't know my own strength. You
did not seem able to get through that opening and so I caught hold
of you. You came away in my hands quite easily. Suddenly I thought to
myself, 'now I will make sure.'"

He paused as if his breath had failed him. Mrs. Travers dared not make
the slightest movement. Still in the pose of one in quest of hidden
truth she murmured, "Make sure?"

"Yes. And now I am sure. You are here--here! Before I couldn't tell."

"Oh, you couldn't tell before," she said.

"No."

"So it was reality that you were seeking."

He repeated as if speaking to himself: "And now I am sure."

Her sandalled foot, all rosy in the glow, felt the warmth of the embers.
The tepid night had enveloped her body; and still under the impression
of his strength she gave herself up to a momentary feeling of quietude
that came about her heart as soft as the night air penetrated by the
feeble clearness of the stars. "This is a limpid soul," she thought.

"You know I always believed in you," he began again. "You know I did.
Well. I never believed in you so much as I do now, as you sit there,
just as you are, and with hardly enough light to make you out by."

It occurred to her that she had never heard a voice she liked so
well--except one. But that had been a great actor's voice; whereas this
man was nothing in the world but his very own self. He persuaded, he
moved, he disturbed, he soothed by his inherent truth. He had wanted to
make sure and he had made sure apparently; and too weary to resist
the waywardness of her thoughts Mrs. Travers reflected with a sort of
amusement that apparently he had not been disappointed. She thought, "He
believes in me. What amazing words. Of all the people that might have
believed in me I had to find this one here. He believes in me more than
in himself." A gust of sudden remorse tore her out from her quietness,
made her cry out to him:

"Captain Lingard, we forget how we have met, we forget what is going on.
We mustn't. I won't say that you placed your belief wrongly but I have
to confess something to you. I must tell you how I came here to-night.
Jorgenson . . ."

He interrupted her forcibly but without raising his voice.

"Jorgenson. Who's Jorgenson? You came to me because you couldn't help
yourself."

This took her breath away. "But I must tell you. There is something in
my coming which is not clear to me."

"You can tell me nothing that I