of something Michael said." She spoke in an even voice
without looking up.

"Michael? Well . . what was it?" Anxiety sharpened his tone.

"He said that if . . if you really . . wanted me back again, your
conscientious scruples would be swept away like straws before a flood.
I wouldn't believe him then. But now . . I'm afraid it's true."

"Confound the man! What does he know about my scruples?" Lenox broke
out with irrepressible vehemence; and she looked up quickly.

"Please don't be violent, Eldred. You told me to speak out. Besides,
Michael is my brother."

"I'm sorry. But if he were ten times your brother, I'd say the same.
He had no business to try and set you against me like that." He caught
her unresisting hands now, and held them fast.

"You take Michael's word against mine . . is that so?" he asked, a dull
flush rising in his face; and he tried to look into her eyes. But she
would not have it.

"Oh, my dear, can't you see it's not," she said, so low that he
scarcely heard her. "It's . . your own actions, contradicting your own
words, that make me feel he must be right."

Lenox stood aghast at this new and unanswerable aspect of the case; at
the knowledge that, in respect of practical proof to the contrary, his
hands were tied.

"Good God! what can a man do to convince you?" he demanded on a note of
smothered passion. "Quita . . my very wife, look me in the eyes, and
answer me straight. Do you honestly believe that I have been insulting
you with mere lip-service all this while?"

He stood before her in mingled dignity and humility, trying to master
himself, to find some admissible outlet for the tumult of feeling that
was undermining the foundations of his will. But she did not answer at
once; nor did she look up.

"Think how I welcomed you a week ago," he urged.

"I do think of it. But . . since then . . ." She hesitated; and a
slow wave of colour crimsoned her neck and face, even to her forehead.
"I . . I don't know what to believe," she added very low.

The words struck away his last defences, and he caught her in his arms;
straining her to him, and kissing her almost roughly on lips and eyes
and throat. She submitted at first, in sheer amazement and
half-frightened joy at having roused him thus. Then she tried to free
herself; but he held her close, and hard.

"Do you believe now," he asked, his lips at her ear, "that I want
you . . that I love you . . with every part of me,