of her.

"Thank God that I can prove that I do trust you--absolutely. When will
you marry me, Garth?"

"When will I marry you?" He repeated the words slowly, as though they
conveyed no meaning to him.

"Yes. I want every one to know, to see that I believe in you. I want
to stand at your side--go shares. Do you remember, once, how we settled
that married life meant going shares in everything--good and bad?"
She smiled a little at the remembrance drawn from the small store of
memories that was all her few days of unclouded love had given her. "I
want--my share, Garth."

For a moment he was silent. Then he spoke, and the quiet finality of his
tones struck her like a blow.

"We can never marry, Sara."

"Never--marry!" she repeated dazedly. Quick fear seized her, and she
rushed on impetuously: "Then you haven't forgiven me, after all--you
don't believe that I trust you! Oh! How can I make you _know_ that I do?
Garth--"

"Oh, my dear," he interrupted swiftly. "Don't misunderstand me. I
know that you believe in me now--and I thank God for it! And as for
forgiveness, as I told you, I have nothing to forgive. You'd have
had need of the faith that removes mountains"--Sara started at the
repetition of Patrick's very words--"to have believed in me under the
circumstances." He paused a moment, and when he spoke again there was
something triumphant in his tones--a serene gladness and contentment.
"You and I, beloved, are right with each other--now and always. Nothing
can ever again come between us to divide us as we have been divided this
last year. But, none the less," and his voice took on a steadfast note
of resolve, "I cannot marry you. I thought I could--I thought the past
had sunk into oblivion, and that I might take the gift of love you
offered me. . . . But I was wrong."

"No! No! You were not wrong!" She was clinging to him in a sudden terror
that even now their happiness was slipping from them. "The past has
nothing to say to you and me. It can't come between us. . . . You have
only to take me, Garth"--tremulously. "Let me _show_ that my love is
stronger than ill repute. Let me come to you and stand by you as your
wife. The past can't hurt us, then!"

He shook his head.

"The past never loses its power to hurt," he answered. "I've learned
that. As far as the world you belong to is concerned, I'm finished, and
I won't drag the woman I love through the same hell I've been through.
That's what it would mean, you