door was just ajar and he passed
in. In a second the whole trouble was over. She was in his arms at
once, kissing his face, stroking his hair, leaning on his bosom,
holding his arm round her own waist as though to make sure that he
should not leave her; crying and laughing at the same moment. "Oh,
George, my own George! It has all been my doing; but you will forgive
me! Say that one word that I am 'forgiven.'" Then there came another
storm of kisses which frustrated the possibility of his speaking to
her.

What a wife she was to possess! How graceful, how gracious, how
precious were her charms,--charms in which no other woman surely ever
approached her! How warm and yet how cool was the touch of her lips;
how absolutely symmetrical was the sweet curve of her bust; what a
fragrance came from her breath! And the light of her eyes, made more
bright by her tears, shone into his with a heavenly brightness. Her
soft hair as he touched it filled him with joy. And once more she
was all his own. Let the secret be what it might, he was quite sure
that she was his own. As he bent down over her she pressed her cheek
against his and again drew his arm tighter round her waist. "George,
if you wished to know how I love you, you have taken the right step.
I have been sick for you, but now I shall be sick no longer. Oh,
George, it was my fault; but say that you have forgiven me."

He could not bring himself to speak so much of an accusation as would
be contained in that word "forgive." How was he to pardon one whose
present treatment to him was so perfect, so loving, and so lovely?
"Sit down, George, and let me tell you how it was. Of course I was
wrong, but I did not mean to be wrong."

"No, no," he said. "There shall be no wrong." And yet why had not
his sister told him that it would be like this? Why had she so
stoutly maintained that Cecilia would confess nothing. Here she was
acknowledging everything with most profuse confession. What could any
man desire more? "Do not speak of it;--at any rate now. Let me be
happy as I have got you."

Then there was another storm of kisses, but she was not to be put
off from her purpose. "You must know it all. Sit down;--there, like
that." And she seated herself, leaning back upon him on the sofa.
"Before we had been abroad I had been engaged to that man."

"Yes;--I understand that."

"I had been engaged to him,--without knowing him. Then when I found
that he was not what I thought him, I