n that you will not be my wife--that you care for me, but not
enough to marry me?" he cried. She shook her head slowly.

"No, dear," she said, "for if I were a princess and you were a
shopkeeper I would marry you, and be proud of my husband. Don't think
so meanly of me as that. There is another--a more powerful reason."

"Tell it me," he begged; "don't keep me in suspense."

She thrust her arm through his and led him gently to the sofa.

"Douglas, won't you trust me? I want to keep my secret for a little
while. Listen. It shall not keep us apart, but I cannot be your wife
yet, dearly though I would love to be."

The old mistrust blazed up in the man. Drexley's cynicism, Strong's
ravings came back to him. He, too, was to be fooled. Her love was a
pretence. He was simply a puppet, to yield her amusement and to be
thrown aside.

"The truth!" he cried, roughly. "Emily, remember that I have seen men
made mad for love of you, have heard them curse your deceit and
heartlessness. I'll forget it all, but you must trust me. Prove to me
that you cannot marry me, and I'll wait, I'll be your slave, my life
shall be yours to do what you will with. But I'll have the truth. I'll
have no lonely nights when doubts of you creep like hideous phantoms
about the room, and Drexley and Strong come mocking me. Oh, forgive me,
but you don't know what solitude is. Be merciful, Emily. Trust me."

She had turned white. The hands she held out to him trembled.

"Douglas," she cried, "if you have any love for me at all you must have
faith in me too. It shall not be for long. In less than a year you
shall know everything, and until then you shall see me when you will,
you shall be the dearest person in the world to me."

"I want the truth," he pleaded. "Emily, if you send me away you'll send
me into hell. I daren't have any doubts. They'd drive me mad. Be
merciful, tell me everything."

She was very white, very cold, yet her voice shook with passion.

"Douglas, you have called me heartless. You were nearer the truth than
you thought, perhaps. You are the first man whom I have ever cared for,
it is all new to me. Don't make me crush it. Don't destroy what seems
like a beautiful dream. You can be patient for a little while, can you
not? You shall be my dearest friend, my life shall be moulded as you
will--listen, I will swear that no one in this world shall ever have a
single word of love from me save you. Don't wreck our lives, dear, just
fr