ed them haggard
and worn. Then it was the woman who spoke.

"Ralph--do you think a woman can love--really love--two men?"

He stared at her.

"Perhaps," he faltered; "perhaps, but in different ways."

"I loved them both. When--when I find John--if he wants me--if he asks
me--I shall marry him." She shuddered.

"Ruth!"

"Yes; I think Philip would give him even--me. His renunciation was wide
and deep. He, the great, strong soul of him, went on--alone. It had no
real part with his weakness and all that was bound up in his
weakness--he wanted John to have everything of which he had deprived
him. You can understand, can you not? At the last, when fear had no
further power, he was almost mad in his abandon of recompense.

"He did not tell me this, that awful night when he told me--the rest;
but I felt it. I saw that I, with all else that had meant anything to
him, was included in his shame; and the new nature that had evolved from
the agony and remorse--had nothing to do with us any more!"

A deep sob shook the slim form. For a moment Ruth Dale rocked to and fro
in her misery, then she let the wild confession again have its way.

"For myself--" the haunted eyes fixed themselves upon Drew's rigid
face--"for myself--in a strange fashion--and oh! you shall _not_
misunderstand me, I want to give to him that which I withheld from him
when he needed it most. I want to bring back the gladness of life to
him--if I can," she gasped; "it has all been such a hideous nightmare.
If he wants me--if he wants me, he shall have me!" The words were flung
out defiantly, fiercely.

Drew started to his feet, and went quickly to her. In all his life he
had never seen on a woman's face such desperation and remorse.

As his friend's wife he had loved her as a sister. Her beauty had always
fascinated and charmed him. To see her now, cast adrift on this troubled
sea of love and fear, was a bitter, almost a terrifying sight.

He bent over her, and raised her face firmly and gently with one
trembling hand. He felt that he must calm and steady her by physical
control.

"Ruth," he said gently, but distinctly, "why do you look as you do? Tell
me, what is in your heart?"

The woman tried to shrink from the hold he had upon her. He saw that the
vital point of her confession she would keep from him unless he
commanded, and, if the future were to be saved from the grip of the
miserable past, he and she must thoroughly understand each other.