eyes on his listeners. He was aware that his story
must sound to them as brutal as might be, but it was a phase of his
life, and, so far as he could, he wanted to start with a clean sheet;
not out of love of confidence, for he was self-contained, but he would
have enough to do to shepherd his future without shepherding his past.
He saw that Lady Belward had a sickly fear in her face, while Sir
William had gone stern and hard.

He went on:

"It saved the situation, did that marriage; though it was no marriage
you will say. Neither was it one way, and I didn't intend at the start
to stand by it an hour longer than I wished. But she was more than I
looked for, and it seems to me that she saved my life that winter, or
my reason anyhow. There had been so much tragedy that I used to wonder
every day what would happen before night; and that's not a good thing
for the brain of a chap of twenty-one or two. The funny part of it is
that she wasn't a pagan--not a bit. She could read and speak English
in a sweet old-fashioned way, and she used to sing to me--such a funny,
sorry little voice she had--hymns the Moravians had taught her, and
one or two English songs. I taught her one or two besides, 'Where the
Hawthorn Tree is Blooming,' and 'Allan Water'--the first my father had
taught me, the other an old Scotch trader. It's different with a woman
and a man in a place like that. Two men will go mad together, but
there's a saving something in the contact of a man's brain with a
woman's. I got fond of her, any man would have, for she had something
that I never saw in any heathen, certainly in no Indian; you'll see it
in women from Iceland. I determined to marry her in regular style when
spring and a missionary came. You can't understand, maybe, how one can
settle to a life where you've got companionship, and let the world go
by. About that time, I thought that I'd let Ridley Court and the rest
of it go as a boy's dreams go. I didn't seem to know that I was only
satisfied in one set of my instincts. Spring came, so did a missionary,
and for better or worse it was."

Sir William came to his feet. "Great Heaven!" he broke out.

His wife tried to rise, but could not.

"This makes everything impossible," added the baronet shortly.

"No, no, it makes nothing impossible--if you will listen."

Gaston was cool. He had begun playing for the stakes from one
stand-point, and he would not turn back.

He continued:

"I lived with her hap