g to call on you to help me, by being all
that a friend can be--by proving your loyalty and obeying a command
that's very hard to give ... by obeying it without even asking why."

"Command me," he said quietly, and for just a moment there was a threat
of faltering in her manner, as though the edict were indeed too hard,
but almost at once she went on in a firm voice.

"You must go away. You must go to-morrow. That's what I brought you down
here to tell you."

"Of course, I have no choice but obedience," he replied simply. "But I
can't go without asking questions and having them answered."

"Yes, you must."

"Why are you sending me away?"

"I hoped it would be possible," she said as her dark eyes filled with
pain and conflict, "for this visit to end without these things having to
be said. I hoped you'd just go away without finding out.... I've done my
best and tried to play the part ... but I can't keep it up forever....
Now I'm asking your help."

"Conscience," he reminded her, and his tone held a sympathy which
discounted his stubbornness in demanding the full reasons for her
decision, "I don't want to press you with questions when you ask me, in
the name of friendship, not to do it ... but--" He paused a moment and
continued with a shake of his head. "We must be honest with each other.
Once before we let a failure to fully understand separate us. I can't
make the same life-wrecking mistake twice. Don't you see that I must
know why I am being banished?"

Slowly she nodded her head in reluctant assent. Her figure seemed to
waver as with faintness, but when Stuart reached out his arms to catch
her, she stepped back and stood with regained steadiness.

"I suppose ..." she acknowledged, "I must be fully honest with you.... I
suppose I was only trying to make it easier for myself ... and that I
must face it fully."

"Face just what, Conscience?"

"The facts. When you came, Stuart, I believed that you had been cured of
the old heartbreak. I believed it until--the other day when we talked
about Marian Holbury--then I knew--that you were still in love with me."

Farquaharson's face paled and his lips tightened.

"I had tried," he said slowly, "to let you think the things which might
make you happier--but I don't seem to be a good actor."

"You were a splendid actor, Stuart, but you had a woman's intuition
against you."

He remained looking across the water for a while before he replied, in a
hurt tone.

"I