ecause
you somehow wanted me. _He_ seemed to tell me of that. So why," she
strangely smiled, "shouldn't I like him?"

It brought Spencer Brydon to his feet. "You 'like' that horror--?"

"I _could_ have liked him. And to me," she said, "he was no horror. I
had accepted him."

"'Accepted'--?" Brydon oddly sounded.

"Before, for the interest of his difference--yes. And as _I_ didn't
disown him, as _I_ knew him--which you at last, confronted with him in
his difference, so cruelly didn't, my dear,--well, he must have been, you
see, less dreadful to me. And it may have pleased him that I pitied
him."

She was beside him on her feet, but still holding his hand--still with
her arm supporting him. But though it all brought for him thus a dim
light, "You 'pitied' him?" he grudgingly, resentfully asked.

"He has been unhappy, he has been ravaged," she said.

"And haven't I been unhappy? Am not I--you've only to look at
me!--ravaged?"

"Ah I don't say I like him _better_," she granted after a thought. "But
he's grim, he's worn--and things have happened to him. He doesn't make
shift, for sight, with your charming monocle."

"No"--it struck Brydon; "I couldn't have sported mine 'down-town.' They'd
have guyed me there."

"His great convex pince-nez--I saw it, I recognised the kind--is for his
poor ruined sight. And his poor right hand--!"

"Ah!" Brydon winced--whether for his proved identity or for his lost
fingers. Then, "He has a million a year," he lucidly added. "But he
hasn't you."

"And he isn't--no, he isn't--_you_!" she murmured, as he drew her to his
breast.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JOLLY CORNER***

******* This file should be named 1190.txt or 1190.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/9/1190

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not