" Garson replied, with such carelessness of manner as
he could contrive. Then, at last, he turned to Mary. This parting must
be bitter, and he braced himself with all the vigors of his will to
combat the weakness that leaped from his soul.

As he came near, the girl could hold herself in leash no longer. She
threw herself on his breast. Her arms wreathed about his neck. Great
sobs racked her.

"Oh, Joe, Joe!" The gasping cry was of utter despair.

Garson's trembling hand patted the girl's shoulder very softly, a caress
of infinite tenderness.

"That's all right!" he murmured, huskily. "That's all right, Mary!"
There was a short silence; and then he went on speaking, more firmly.
"You know, he'll look after you."

He would have said more, but he could not. It seemed to him that the
sobs of the girl caught in his own throat. Yet, presently, he strove
once again, with every reserve of his strength; and, finally, he so far
mastered himself that he could speak calmly. The words were uttered with
a subtle renunciation that was this man's religion.

"Yes, he'll take care of you. Why, I'd like to see the two of you with
about three kiddies playing round the house."

He looked up over the girl's shoulder, and beckoned with his head to
Dick, who came forward at the summons.

"Take good care of her, won't you?"

He disengaged himself gently from the girl's embrace, and set her within
the arms of her husband, where she rested quietly, as if unable to fight
longer against fate's decree.

"Well, so long!"

He dared not utter another word, but turned blindly, and went, stumbling
a little, toward the doorman, who had appeared in answer to the
Inspector's call.

"To the Gallery," Burke ordered, curtly.

Garson went on without ever a glance back.... His strength was at an
end.

* * * * *

There was a long silence in the room after Garson's passing. It was
broken, at last, by the Inspector, who got up from his chair, and
advanced toward the husband and wife. In his hand, he carried a sheet of
paper, roughly scrawled. As he stopped before the two, and cleared
his throat, Mary withdrew herself from Dick's arms, and regarded the
official with brooding eyes from out her white face. Something strange
in her enemy's expression caught her attention, something that set new
hopes alive within her in a fashion wholly inexplicable, so that she
waited with a sudden, breathless eagerness.

Burke extended the sheet of paper to th