ted his tear-stained face and peered up at
his brother in the fitful candle-light.

"You do--want to marry Miss Moore then, Dicky?" he asked diffidently.

Dick looked straight back at him; his eyes shone with a sombre gleam
that came and went. For several seconds he sat silent, then very
steadily he spoke.

"Yes, I want her all right, Robin, but there are some pretty big
obstacles in the way. I may get over them--and I may not. Time
will prove."

His lips closed upon the words, and became again a single hard line. His
look went beyond Robin and grew fixed. The boy watched him dumbly with
awed curiosity.

Suddenly Dick moved, gripped him by the shoulders and pulled him upwards.
"There! Go to bed!" he said. "And don't take any notice of what Jack says
for the future! Don't fight him either! Understand? Leave him alone!"

Robin blundered up obediently. Again there looked forth from his eyes the
dog-like worship which he kept for Dick alone. "I'll do--whatever you
say, Dicky," he said earnestly. "I--I'd die for you--I would!" He spoke
with immense effort, and all his heart was in the words.

Dick smiled at him quizzically. "Instead of which I only want you to show
a little ordinary common or garden sense," he said. "Think you can do
that for me?"

"I'll try, Dicky," he said humbly.

"Yes, all right. You try!" Dick said, and got up, more moved than he
cared to show. He turned to go, but paused to light Robin's candle from
his own. "And don't forget I'm--rather fond of you, my boy!" he said,
with a brief smile over his shoulder as he went away.

No, Robin was not likely to forget that, seeing that Dick's love for him
was his safeguard from all evil, and his love for Dick was the
mainspring of his life. But--though his development was stunted and
imperfect--there were certain facts of existence which he was beginning
slowly but surely to grasp. And one of these--before but dimly
suspected--he had realized fully to-night, a fact beyond all questioning
learnt from Dick's own lips.

Dick's words: "The woman I love," had sunk deep--deep into his soul. And
he knew with that intuition which cannot err that his love for Juliet was
the greatest thing life held for him--or ever could hold again.

And the driving force gripped Robin's soul afresh as he lay wide-eyed to
the smothering gloom of the night. Whatever happened--whoever
suffered--Dicky must have his heart's desire.

CHAPTER VI

THE SISTER OF MERCY