wo as though in doubt; then knelt suddenly down beside her and
drew her to him.

She made as if she would resist him, but finally, as he held her,
impulsively she yielded. She sobbed out her agony against his breast. And
he soothed her as he might have soothed a child.

But though presently he dried her tears, he did not kiss her. He spoke,
but his voice was devoid of all emotion.

"You are blaming the wrong person for all this. It wasn't Wentworth's
fault. He has probably been a crook all his life. It wasn't yours. You
couldn't be expected to detect it. But"--he paused--"don't you realise
now why I am offering you the only reparation in my power?" he said.

She was trembling, but she did not raise her head or attempt to move,
though his arms were ready to release her.

"No. I don't," she said.

Very steadily he went on: "You have not wronged me. It was I who did the
wrong. I could have made you see his guilt. It would have been infinitely
easier than establishing his innocence before the world. But--I have
always wanted the unattainable. I knew that you were out of reach, and so
I wanted you. Afterwards, very soon afterwards, I found I wanted even
more than what I had bargained for. I wanted your friendship. That was
what the sapphire stood for. You didn't understand. I had handicapped
myself too heavily. So I took what I could get, and missed the rest."

He stopped. She still lay against his breast.

"Why did you want--my friendship?" she whispered.

He made a curious gesture, as if he faced at last the inevitable. When he
answered her his voice was very low. He seemed to speak against his will.
"I--loved you."

"Ah!" It was scarcely more than a breath uttering the words. "And you
never told me!"

He was silent.

She raised herself at last and faced him. Her hands were on his
shoulders. "Percival," she said, and there was a strange light shining
in the eyes that he had dried. "Is your love so small, then--as to be
not--worth--mentioning?"

For the first time in her memory he avoided her look. "No," he said.

"What then?" Her voice was suddenly very soft and infinitely appealing.

He opened his arms with a gesture of renunciation "It is--beyond words,"
he said.

She leaned nearer. Her hands slipped upwards, clasping his neck.

"It is the greatest thing that has ever come to me," she said, and in her
voice there throbbed a new note which he had never heard in it before.
"Do you think--oh, do you thi