nds, and looked
into each other's eyes, than they loved one another, and the sense of
mental kinship made itself plain between them.

They sat down together on the couch in Nan's private sitting-room and
fell into a little aimless talk, which was succeeded by a short,
significant silence. Then Nan put out her hand and look Lettice's in her
own.

"_You know!_" she said, in a whisper.

"I know--what?"

"You know all that is wrong between Sydney and myself. You know what
made me ill."

"Yes."

"And you know too--that I love him--very dearly." The words were broken
by a sob.

"Yes, dear--as he loves you."

"You think so--really?"

"I am quite sure of it. How could you doubt that?"

"I did doubt it for a time. I heard the man say that he married me
because I was--rich."

"And you believed it?"

"I believed anything--everything. And the rest," said Nan, with a rising
color in her face, "the rest was true."

"Dear," said Lettice, gently, "there is only one thing to be said
now--that he would be very glad to undo the past. He is very sorry."

"You think he is?"

"Can you look at him and not see the marks of his sorrow and his pain
upon his face? He has suffered a great deal; and it would be better for
him now to forget the past, and to feel that you forgave him."

Nan brushed away some falling tears, but did not speak at once.

"Lettice," she said at last, in a broken whisper, "I believe I have been
very hard and cold all these long months. I thought I did not care--but
I do, I do. Only--I wish I could forget--that poor girl--and the little
child----"

She burst into sudden weeping, so vehement that Lettice put both her
arms round the slight, shaken figure, and tried to calm her by caresses
and gentle words.

"Is there nothing that I could do? nothing Sydney could do--to make
amends?"

"Nothing," said Lettice gently, but with decision. "They are happy now,
and prosperous; good has come out of the evil, and it is better to
forget the evil itself. Don't be afraid; I hear from them, and about
them, constantly, and if ever they were in need of help, our hands would
be the ones stretched out to help them. The good we cannot do to them we
can do to others for their sakes."

And Nan was comforted.

* * * * *

Sydney came home early that evening; anxious, disquieted, somewhat out
of heart. He found that Lettice had gone, and that Nan was in her
sitting-room. He generally