heart, and mind, and
body?"

For all answer she leaned her head against him with a broken sob.

"Oh, Eldred," she rebuked him through her tears. "I never knew you
could behave . . like that!"

"No more did I," he answered bluntly. "Forgive me, darling, if you
can. I was a brute to lose control of myself. But you pushed me too
far. There are things no man of human passions can put up with; and if
you are going to begin by doubting my sincerity, all hope of real union
between us is at an end."

"Dear love, I promise I'll never doubt it again," she whispered
fervently. "I'll go away, and stay away . . without any fuss, if only
I can see things straight and clear; if only you won't quite shut me
out from the best part of yourself."

"I've no notion of shutting you out from any part of myself, you
precious woman. But the habit of half a lifetime is not easy to break
through; and I suppose that when two people marry they have to learn
one another bit by bit, like a new language; except in such a rare case
as the Desmonds, where love and understanding are not two things, but
one, like the man and woman themselves. There . . did you ever guess I
had thought all that about marriage!"

She laughed contentedly.

"No. How could I? And it's your thoughts I want, Eldred;--the hidden
you, that belongs to no one but me."

"Do you, though? It sounds rather wholesale! But I'll do my best."

"Come over and sit on the steps; and I'll try to tell you just how
matters stand, and how I feel about it all."

He led her back to the verandah, and establishing her on the topmost
step, seated himself lower down, one arm passed behind her, his left
hand covering hers that lay folded in her lap. Quita, looking down
upon it in a flutter of happiness, noted and approved it as an epitome
of the man; large, without clumsiness, nervous and full of character.

Then he told her, simply and straightly, a part of what he had told
Desmond; and more, that was for herself alone. Through all he said,
and left unsaid, Quita felt the force of his ascetic personality, of a
strong man, stern with himself and his own passion; and, womanlike,
thrilled at thought of her dominion over him; her power to set him
vibrating by a word, a look, a touch. Yet she listened without
movement or interruption; for the which he blessed her in his heart.

"I suppose there are numbers of men who would take . . what I refuse
without a twinge of conscience,"