free from trouble and
anxiety if I do anything for you. Don't you understand? And as far as my
money is concerned, you know very well that if it had not been for John
and those tiresome lawyers, you should have had it all and spent it, if
you chose, without the slightest reference to me. What grieves me,
dearest, is that you should have been suffering without taking me into
your confidence."

"I ought to have done so," said Sydney, rather reluctantly, "but I felt
as if I could not tell you all these paltry, sordid details. You might
have thought----"

Then he paused, and the color rose darkly in his face.

"I should have thought nothing but what was honorable to you," said Nan,
throwing back her graceful head with a gesture of natural pride and
indignation.

"And now you think the worse of me?"

"No, no!" she cried, stealing one arm round his neck, "I think nothing
bad of you--nothing! Only you _will_ trust me, now, Sydney? You will not
hide things from me again?"

"No, my darling, nothing that you ought to know," he said. There was a
touch of new but restrained emotion in his voice. It struck him for
almost the first time how much of his life he had hidden from her frank
and innocent eyes.

Presently, when he had kissed her tears away, she begged him to tell her
what he still actually owed, and, after some little demur, he consented.
The amount of the debt, which lay heavily on his conscience, was
comparatively a trivial thing to her. But when he had told her all, she
looked at him with eyes which, although very loving, were full of wonder
and dismay.

"Poor Sydney!" she said caressingly. "My poor boy! As if you could give
your mind properly to anything with this heavy burden on it! To-morrow
we can get the money, and pay off all these people. Then you will be
able to work without any disturbance."

"Thanks to you, Nan," said her husband, with bowed head. She could not
understand why he did not look more relieved. She never suspected that
his mind was burdened with another debt, that money could not pay.

She had not asked him for any explanation of the items in the paper that
she had read. The momentary wonder that had flitted across her mind
passed as quickly as it came. The gifts that were not for her had been
intended perhaps for his sister Lettice, perhaps for the wedding present
of a friend. She did not like to ask. But a slightly uncomfortable
sensation remained in her mind, and she never again wore