moment; then he said to Angela, with a deeper
tremor in his voice--

"He was my dearest friend."

"I never felt more devoted to you than at this moment!" Bernard
declared, smiling still.

Gordon had fixed his sombre eyes upon the girl again.

"Do you understand me now?"

Angela looked back at him for some instants.

"Yes," she murmured at last.

"And will you wait, and give me another chance?"

"Yes," she said, in the same tone.

Bernard uttered a quick exclamation, but Angela checked him with a
glance, and Gordon looked from one of them to the other.

"Can I trust you?" Gordon asked.

"I will make you happy," said Angela.

Bernard wondered what under the sun she meant; but he thought he might
safely add--

"I will abide by her choice."

Gordon actually began to smile.

"It won't be long, I think; two or three weeks."

Angela made no answer to this; she fixed her eyes on the floor.

"I shall see Blanche as often as possible," she presently said.

"By all means! The more you see her the better you will understand me."

"I understand you very well now. But you have shaken me very much, and
you must leave me. I shall see you also--often."

Gordon took up his hat and stick; he saw that Bernard did not do the
same.

"And Bernard?" he exclaimed.

"I shall ask him to leave Paris," said Angela.

"Will you go?"

"I will do what Angela requests," said Bernard.

"You have heard what she requests; it 's for you to come now."

"Ah, you must at least allow me to take leave!" cried Bernard.

Gordon went to the door, and when he had opened it he stood for a while,
holding it and looking at his companions. Then--

"I assure you she won't be long!" he said to Angela, and rapidly passed
out.

The others stood silent till they heard the outer door of the apartment
close behind him.

"And now please to elucidate!" said Bernard, folding his arms.

Angela gave no answer for some moments; then she turned upon him a smile
which appeared incongruous, but which her words presently helped to
explain.

"He is intensely in love with his wife!"

CHAPTER XXIX

This statement was very effective, but it might well have seemed at
first to do more credit to her satiric powers than to her faculty of
observation. This was the light in which it presented itself to Bernard;
but, little by little, as she amplified the text, he grew to think
well of it, and at last he was quite ready to place it, as a tri