rithe.

I kept my eyes on him, and I let them tell him everything. He saw; there
was no doubt of that; but he did not say the words I hoped for. A moment
or two he was silent; and then, gazing away towards the door of the
ballroom, he spoke very gently, as if I had been a child--though I am
older than Di by three or four years.

"Thank you, Imp, for letting me see that you are such a staunch little
friend," said he. "Now that I know you really do take an interest in my
affairs, I think I may tell you why I want so much to go to
Algiers--though very likely you've guessed already--you are such an
'intuitive' girl. And besides, I haven't tried very hard to hide my
feelings--not as hard as I ought, perhaps, when I realise how little I
have to offer to your sister. Now you understand all, don't you--even if
you didn't before? I love her, and if I go to Algiers--"

"Don't say any more," I managed to cut him short. "I can't bear--I mean,
I understand. I--did guess before."

It was true. I had guessed, but I wouldn't let myself believe. I hoped
against hope. He was so much kinder to me than any other man ever took
the trouble to be, in all my wretched, embittered twenty-four years of
life.

"Di might have told me," I went gasping on, rather than let there be a
long silence between us just then. I had enough pride not to want him to
see me cry--though, if it could have made any difference, I would have
grovelled at his feet and wet them with my tears. "But she never does
tell me anything about herself."

"She's so unselfish and so fond of you, that probably she likes better
to talk about you instead," he defended her. And then I felt that I
could hate him, as much as I've always hated Di, deep down in my heart.
At that minute I should have liked to kill her, and watch his face when
he found her lying dead--out of his reach for ever.

"Besides," he hurried on, "I've never asked her yet if she would marry
me, because--my prospects weren't very brilliant. She knows of course
that I love her--"

"And if you get the consulship, you'll put the important question?" I
cut him short, trying to be flippant.

"Yes. But I told you tonight, because I--because you were so kind, I
felt I should like to have you know."

Kind! Yes, I had been too kind. But if by putting out my foot I could
have crushed every hope of his for the future--every hope, that is, in
which my stepsister Diana Forrest had any part--I would have done it,
just