ourse, you think me hateful."

He sat down by her and took her hand. "It's all rather ridiculous,
isn't it?" he said. "I'm old enough to be your father, but I'm just
where you are, really. We've all been learning this last
fortnight--you and Robin, and I--and all learning the same thing. It's
been a case," he hesitated for a word, "of calf-love, for all three of
us. Don't regret Robin; he's not worth it. Why, you are worth twenty
of him, and he'll know that later on. I'm afraid that sounds
patronising," he added, laughing. "But I'm humble really. Never mind
the letters. You shall do what you like with them and I will trust
you. You are not," he repeated, "that sort of girl. Why, dash it!" he
suddenly added, "Robin doesn't know what he has lost."

"Ah!" she said, blushing, "it wouldn't have done. I can see that
now--but I can see so many things that I couldn't see before. I wish I
had known a man like you--then I might have learnt earlier; but I had
nobody, nobody at all, and I nearly made a mess of things. But it
isn't too late!"

"Too late! Why, no!" he answered. "I'm only beginning now, and I'm
forty-five. I, too, have learned a lot in this fortnight."

She looked at him anxiously for a moment. "They don't like you, do
they? Robin and the others?"

"No," he answered; "I don't think they do."

"I know," she said quickly; "I heard from Robin, and I'm sorry. You
must have had a bad time. But why, if they have been like that, do you
want the letters? They have treated us both in the same way."

"Why, yes," he answered. "Only Robin is my son. That, you see, is my
great affair. I care for him more than for anything in the world, and
if I had the letters----"

"Why, of course," she cried, "I see--it gives you the pull. Why, how
blind I've been! It's splendid!" She sprang up, and went to a small
writing-desk by the window; she unlocked a drawer and returned with a
small packet in her hand. "There," she said, "there they are. They
are not many, are they, for such a big fuss? But I think that I meant
you to have them all the time--from the first moment that I saw you. I
had hoped that you would ask for them----"

He took the letters, held them in his hand for a moment, and then
slipped them into his pocket.

"Thank you," he said, "I shall not forget."

"Nor I," she answered. "We are, I suppose, ships that pass in the
night. We have just shared for a moment an experience, and it ha