nce. "If you're going to think of me," he said, "you'll do
it. I have told you, you needn't be afraid of my expecting too much."

But she shook her head. "I should be much more afraid of taking too much
from you," she said. "The little I could offer would never satisfy you."

"Yes it would," he insisted. "I'm only asking to stand between you and
trouble. It's all I want in life."

Again his eyes were upon her, dark and resolute. His hand held hers in a
steady grip. For the first time her own resolution began to falter.

"Let me write to you, Mr. Ironside," she said at last, with a vague idea
of softening a refusal that had become inexplicably hard.

"Write and say 'No'?" said Jeff.

She smiled a little, but her eyes filled with sudden tears. "You make it
very hard for me to say 'No,'" she said.

"I would like to make it impossible," he said.

"Even when I have told you that I can't--that I don't--love you in the
ordinary way?" she said almost pleadingly.

"I don't want to be loved in the ordinary way," he answered doggedly.

"I should be a perpetual disappointment to you," she said.

"I would rather have even that than--nothing," said Jeff.

One of the tears ran over and fell upon their clasped hands. "In fact,
you want me at any price," she said.

"At any price," said Jeff.

She bent her head and choked back a sob. "And no one else wants me at
all," she whispered.

He stooped towards her. Perhaps for her peace of mind it was as well
that she did not see the sudden fire that blazed in his deep-set eyes as
he did so.

"So you'll change your mind," he said, after a moment, to the bowed
head. "You'll have me--you will?"

She caught back another sob and said nothing.

He straightened himself sharply. "Miss Elliot, if it's going to make you
miserable, you had better send me away. I'll go--if it's for that."

He would have released her hand, but it tightened very suddenly upon
his. "No, don't go--don't go!" she said.

"But you're crying," muttered Jeff uneasily.

She gave a big gulp and raised her head. The tears were running down her
cheeks, but she smiled at him bravely notwithstanding. "I believe I
should cry--much more--if you were to go now," she told him, with a
quaint effort at humour.

Jeff Ironside put a strong grip upon himself. His heart was thumping
like the strokes of a heavy hammer. "Then you'll have me?" he said.

She put her other hand, with a very winning gesture of confidence, into