yes; and she, fearing she had gone too far, caught at the hand she
had shaken off.

"Oh, Theo, what _does_ it matter after all?" she urged between
irritation and despair, "when you know quite well it's you--that I
love?"

The appeal was too ill-timed to be convincing; and Desmond's smile had
a tinge of bitterness in it.

"You have an uncommonly original way of showing it," he said coldly;
"and the statement doesn't square with your refusal to explain
yourself. You have broken up the foundations of--things to-day,
Evelyn! You have killed my trust in you altogether. You may remember,
perhaps,--what that involves." And withdrawing his hand he turned and
left her.

But he had roused her at last by the infliction of a pain too intense
for tears. She sprang up, knocking over the chair that fell with a
thud on the carpet, and hurried after him, clinging to his
unresponsive arm.

"Theo, Theo, take care what you say! Do you mean--truthfully that you
don't--love me any more?"

"God knows," he answered wearily. "Let me alone now, for Heaven's
sake, till I can see things clearer. But I'll not alter my decision
about Kresney, whatever your mysterious impossibilities may be."

Freeing himself gently but deliberately, he went over to the verandah
door and stood there, erect, motionless, his back towards her, looking
out upon the featureless huts of the servants' quarters with eyes that
saw nothing save a vision of his wife's face, as it had shone upon
him, more than two years ago, in the Garden of Tombs.

And it was shining upon him now--had he but guessed it,--not with the
simple tenderness of girlhood; but with the despairing half-worshipping
love of a woman.

When he heard the door close softly behind her, he came back into the
room, mechanically righted the chair, and sitting down upon it buried
his face in his hands.

CHAPTER XXXII.

EVEN TO THE UTMOST.

"How can Love lose, doing of its kind,
Even to the utmost?"
--EDWIN ARNOLD.

When Evelyn Desmond stumbled out of her husband's presence, stunned,
bewildered, blinded with tears, the one coherent thought left in her
mind was--Honor. Amid all that was terrifying and heart-breaking,
Honor's love stood sure; a rock in mid-ocean--the one certainty that
would never fail her, though the world went to pieces under her feet.

But Honor was not in the drawing-room; and Evelyn knocked timidly at
her door.

"Come in," the low voic