call you--well, they wouldn't call you a good woman. They
are very particular about their women. In a way, you must have known
this, Joyce. You've played the game like a thoroughbred, and when one
considers _how_ you've played it, the wonder grows--but they'd never
believe that--even if we told them. Great heavens! how could they, if
they saw you?

"That there was no other way for me to help you then, that you had no
other shelter in God's world would not alter the case at all. And I've
been a fool, Joyce, a maudlin fool--all along!"

The woman opposite was looking at him through tears, but the sweet mouth
was quivering pitifully.

"Joyce"; the tone caused the tear-dimmed eyes to close; "let us face the
music--and--dance along to the tune."

Gaston leaned toward her and when she dared to look at him she saw that
the future was in her hands!

"You--you thought I knew this all along?"

"In a way--yes!"

Joyce's eyes dropped and a flush rose to her pale, still face.

"Then those--those people--the good people, what would they have thought
about you?"

"Oh! some would have thought me a--damned scoundrel; and they would have
been right had I ever intended to leave you to their mercy.
Others--well, others--"

"Please tell me, you see I want to understand everything and that world
is not mine--you know."

"The others,"--and now Gaston dropped his own eyes--"the others would
have forgotten all about it--had I chosen to go back!"

"But they--would not have forgotten about me?"

"No. That is their imbecile code."

"And--and men know that and yet--" Her eyes widened in a dumb
terror--"why, they are worse than--the people of St. Ange!"

Suddenly Gaston flung his head back and looked full at the beautiful
face. It was radiant, but the eyes were overflowing. It seemed to him as
if she, coming out from her shadows, were bringing all wronged womanhood
with her.

"You know Joyce, you must have known no matter what else you thought,
and you must know now, I never meant to leave you to their--mercy?"

He knew that he was speaking truth to her and it gave him courage.

"Yes; yes!" she cried. "I know that above all and everything."

Joyce saw that she was gaining power. She knew that, marvellous as it
seemed, she was to shape their future lives. But she must have the sky
clear. Gaston, she felt, recognized this as well as she. He expected but
one outcome; he saw her love, and was willing to show his own, now that
t