he said, stopping.

"Yes," he replied doggedly.

"Not with me?" Her hand went to her heart. "With me!" A wounded animal
could not have uttered a cry more pathetic. "Not with me!" She
clutched his arm.

"Have I no cause to be angry?" he said.

She looked at him in bewilderment. Could this be he? Oh, could it be
she?

"Cause? How could I give you cause?"

It seemed unanswerable to her. How could Grizel do anything that would
give him the right to be angry with her? Oh, men, men! will you never
understand how absolutely all of her a woman's love can be? If she
gives you everything, how can she give you more? She is not another
person; she is part of you. Does one finger of your hand plot against
another?

He told her sullenly of his scene with the doctor.

"I am very sorry," she said; but her eyes were still searching for the
reason why Tommy could be angry with her.

"You made me promise to tell no one," he said, "and I have kept my
promise: but you----"

The anguish that was Grizel's then! "You can't think that I told him!"
she cried, and she held out her arms as if to remind him of who she
was. "You can believe that of your Grizel?"

"I daresay you have not done it wittingly; but this man has guessed,
and he could never have guessed it from look or word of mine."

"It must have been I!" she said slowly. "Tell me," she cried like a
suppliant, "how have I done it?"

"Your manner, your face," he answered; "it must have been that. I
don't blame you. Grizel, but--yes, it must have been that, and it is
hard on me."

He was in misery, and these words leaped out. They meant only that it
was hard on him if Elspeth had to be told of his engagement in the
hour of her dejection. He did not mean to hurt Grizel to the quick.
However terrible the loss of his freedom might be to the man who could
not love, he always intended to be true to her. But she gave the words
a deeper meaning.

She stood so still she seemed to be pondering, and at last she said
quietly, as if they had been discussing some problem outside
themselves: "Yes, I think it must have been that." She looked long at
him. "It is very hard on you," she said.

"I feel sure it was that," she went on; and now her figure was erect,
and again it broke, and sometimes there was a noble scorn in her
voice, but more often there was only pitiful humility. "I feel sure it
was that, for I have often wondered how everybody did not know. I have
broken my promise. I