Well, I
fancied--but, pshaw, I was a fool," said he.

"Yes," said Alice Deringham. "I think you were--for I was only sorry
then. And--after all that has happened--are you not foolish still? I
am not the woman you fancy I am, Harry, and you know how I have wronged
you."

"You are the one I want," said Alton gravely. "And I know who it was
gave all she had to help me when I was beaten."

Alice Deringham still drew back from him. "It was your own, and you do
not quite know all yet," she said. "I am a penniless girl----"

Alton laughed exultantly as he stooped and caught her wrist. "All that
I want the most you give, and when you sent me away I knew it was
mine," he said. "But Somasco, and the silver up yonder, is mine, too,
and that when we have redeemed Carnaby will be quite enough for two."

Alice Deringham made no further resistance, but glanced up into his
eyes as he drew her to him, and then felt his arm close round her with
a great contentment.

It was half an hour later when she met Nellie Seaforth in a corridor,
and the latter stretched her hands out impulsively and kissed her.

"You need not tell me, and I am very glad," she said. "Of course you
will be happy. He is a good man."

Alice Deringham coloured in a fashion Nellie Seaforth had not believed
her capable of, and there was a depth of grave tenderness in her eyes.

"Yes," she said simply. "And because of his goodness I must try to be
a better woman."

She passed on, and Nellie Seaforth, who found her husband, smiled at
him. "It has all come right, and I don't think Harry will be sorry,
though he might have been had it happened earlier," she said,

"That strikes me as a little mixed," said Seaforth dryly.

Mrs. Seaforth shook her head at him. "No. It's quite plain," she
said. "I think Miss Deringham has been taught a good deal, and
whatever she may have been she will only be lovable as Mrs. Alton."

Seaforth smiled gravely. "Now I understand--fellow-feeling prompts me
to, and of course you are right," he said. "There must be a special
blessing on those who, like you and Harry, ask very little, and give
with an open hand."

THE END

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