ing-pad with much absorption.

"Is it a promise, Chris?" he asked at length.

She threw him a nervous glance and nodded.

He laid his hand upon hers and held it still. "Chris, have you any debts
now?"

She was silent.

"My dear," he said, "don't be afraid of me!"

There was that in his voice that moved her to the depths; she could not
have said why. Impulsively, almost passionately, she went into his arms.

"I won't!" she said. "I won't! Trevor, I--I've been a little beast! That
money you gave me on my birthday I didn't do--what you meant me to do
with it. I just--spent it. I don't know how. And then--when you asked
about it that night--I didn't dare to tell you, and I haven't dared
since. I just let you think it was all right--when it wasn't. Oh, Trevor,
don't be angry--don't be angry!"

"I am not angry," he said.

"Not really? But how you must despise me! It's just the way of the
Wyndhams. We all do it. Trevor, why did you make me tell you?"

"My dear child," he said, "you must tell me these things. It is your only
possibility of happiness, and mine also. Chris, never keep anything from
me, for Heaven's sake! Don't you know that I trust you?"

"I don't deserve it!" sobbed Chris, clinging faster. "You don't know how
bad I am!"

"Hush!" he said, with a restraining hand upon her head. "You have told me
everything now?"

"Oh no, I haven't!" she whispered. "There are crowds of things I couldn't
even begin to tell you. I have always warned you how it would be. I
always said--"

Her agitation was increasing, and her words became inaudible. He saw that
her nerves had given way under the long day's strain, and firmly, with
infinite gentleness, he put a stop to further discussion of a subject
that threatened to upset her seriously.

"Never mind," he said. "You will tell me by and bye, or if you don't I
shall know it is all right. Chris, Chris, you mustn't get hysterical. You
are worn out, dear, and it has upset your sense of proportion. Come, I am
going to send you to bed. We will go into these money matters in the
morning."

But Chris vehemently negatived this. "I don't want to--to spoil
to-morrow. I--I shouldn't sleep for thinking of it. Oh, Trevor, let's
settle it now. I'm going to be sensible--really. And--and--if you'll
forgive me for all the bad things I've done up to to-day I--I will really
try to tell you everything as it happens from now on. Will you, Trevor?"

She raised pleading, pathetic eyes,