e chance of
making me loathe myself.' There was a pause, and out of the silence fell
words that were like the taking of a vow. 'I would never see you again.'

'How right I was to be afraid of that vein of fanaticism in you!'

'Certainly you couldn't make a greater mistake than to go away now and
think it any good ever to come back. Even if I came to feel different, I
couldn't _do_ anything different. I should _know_ all this couldn't be
forgotten. I should know that it would poison my life in the end--yours
too.'

'She has made good use of her time!' he said bitterly. Then, upon a
sudden thought, 'What has changed _her_? Has she been seeing visions
too?'

'What do you mean?'

'Why is she intriguing to get hold of a man that ten years ago she
flatly refused to see or hold any communication with?'

'Intriguing to get hold of? She hasn't mentioned you!'

'What! Then how, in the name of Heaven, do you know--she wants--what you
ask?'

'There can't be any doubt about that,' said the girl, firmly.

With all his tenderness for her, so little still did he understand what
she was going through, that he plainly thought all her pain had come of
knowing that this other page was in his life--he had no glimpse of the
girl's passionate need to think of that same long-turned-over page as
unmarred by the darker blot.

'You absurd, ridiculous child!' With immense relief he dropped into the
nearest chair. 'Then all this is just your own unaided invention. Well,
I could thank God!' He passed his handkerchief over his face.

'For what are you thanking God?'

He sat there obviously thinking out his plan of action.

'Suppose--I'm not going to risk it--but _suppose_----' He looked up, and
at the sight of Jean's face he rose with an expression strangely gentle.
The rather hard eyes were softened in a sudden mist. 'Whether _I_
deserve to suffer or not, it's quite certain _you_ don't. Don't cry,
dear one. It never was the real thing. I had to wait till I knew you
before I understood.'

Her own eyes were brimming as she lifted them in a passion of gratitude
to his face.

'Oh! is that true? Loving you has made things clear to me I didn't dream
of before. If I could think that because of me you were able to do
this----'

'You go back to that?' He seized her by the shoulders, and said
hoarsely, 'Look here! Do you seriously ask me to give up the girl I
love--to go and offer to marry a woman that even to think of----'

'You cared