. I
shan't desert you. I love you--I love you, Dorothy!"

She turned one hurt look upon him, then sank on the desk to cover her
face.

"Oh, don't, don't, don't!" she said. "You haven't any right----"

"Forgive me," he pleaded. "I didn't intend to let you know. I didn't
intend to use my position for anything like that. Forgive me--forget
what I said--and let me serve you as I have before, with no thought of
anything but--earning the money, my fee."

He turned away, striking his fist in his palm, and went across to the
window.

For nearly five minutes neither spoke. Dorothy, torn by emotions too
great to be longer restrained, had controlled her sobs almost
immediately, but she had not dared to raise her eyes. She sat up at
last, and with gaze averted from the figure against the square of
light, composed herself as best she might.

"What is there we can do?" she said at last. "If you wish to be
released from your--your position----"

"We won't talk of that," he interrupted, still looking out on the roofs
below. "I'm in this to stay--till you dismiss me and bid me forget
it--forget it and you--forever. But I need your help."

"I have made it very hard, I know," she said. "If I've acted
deceitfully, it was the only way I thought I could do."

"Please tell me about this man Fairfax," he requested, keeping his back
toward her as before. "You married him, where?"

"At Rockbeach, Massachusetts."

She was businesslike again.

"To satisfy the condition in your uncle's will?"

"No," the confession came slowly, but she made it with courage. "I had
known him for quite a long time. He had--he had courted me a year. He
was always a gentleman, cultured, refined, and fascinating in many
ways. I thought I was in--I thought I was fond of him, very. He was
brilliant--and romantic--and possessed of many qualities that appealed
to me strongly. I'm quite sure now he exercised some spell upon
me--but he was kind--and I believed him--that's all."

"Who married you?"

"A justice of the peace."

"Why not a minister?"

"Mr. Fairfax preferred the justice."

Garrison remained by the window stubbornly.

"You said the man is crazy. What did you mean?"

"Didn't you see?" she answered. "That light in his eyes is insanity.
I thought it a soul-light shining through, though it worried me often,
I admit. We were married at two in the afternoon and went at once to
the station to wait there for the train. He bo