ter, a thousand times better for her, that she should be as she was
than that she should have lived to face the doom awaiting her--better
for her--and better for him.

It was nothing to him now that the story she had told showed her, by all
the laws of humanity, to be unworthy. Black as she had painted herself,
the love she had inspired shone through the blackness, revealing only
that which lay beyond, the radiant purpose, unmeasurable by human
standards, transcending human ken.

He knelt again by her side, taking her cold hands in his and placing
them upon her breast, closing the staring eyes, composing the
wry-drooped mouth, straightening the twisted limbs.

"Oh, my love, my love," he wailed. "Sleep on in peace. Sleep on till I
shall come to you. Wait for me, for I must stay awhile yet to shield and
shelter you so that none may know the secret of your life."

CHAPTER XIX

THE ASHES OF SILENCE

Wallace and Harding were seeing all was secure in the bank before
retiring for the night when a sharp rap sounded at the front door.

"Hullo, what's this?" Wallace exclaimed. "Will you see who it is?"

Harding went to the door and opened it. On the step Durham was standing.

"Oh, it's you, Durham. Come in," he said. "We've been discussing things
or we should have been in bed an hour or more ago. What's the news?"

Without a word Durham stepped in and walked to the room where Wallace
was waiting at the door. Directly he came into the light both Harding
and Wallace uttered exclamations of surprise.

"Why, what has happened?" the latter cried. "My dear fellow--you look
thoroughly done up--you are as haggard as a man of sixty. You've
overdone it. Let me get you a whisky."

Durham shook his head and sat down, resting one hand on the table at his
side, the other on his knee. His uniform was soiled and torn, his face
lined and grey, and his eyes heavy as with a great weariness. The quick
alertness he had shown when he was with them earlier in the day had
gone; he looked, as Wallace had expressed it, an old, haggard man,
listless, without vitality, lacking even the energy to talk.

The two stood watching him in silence, the same question in each one's
mind--what could have happened to produce so great a change in a man in
so short a time?

"Are you sure you won't let me get you something?" Wallace said
presently as Durham neither moved nor spoke. "You are quite worn out.
Won't you take----"

Durham raised his h