d.

He straightened up, squaring his shoulders. "This won't do," he said.
"I'm not going to distress you--frighten you again." The smile he forced
was certainly a credit to him.

"Shiela, you'd love me if you could, wouldn't you?"

"Y-yes," with a shiver.

"Then it's all right and you mustn't worry.... Can't we get back to the
old footing again?"

"N-no; it's gone."

"Then we'll find even firmer ground."

"Yes--firmer ground, Mr. Hamil."

He released her chilled hands, swung around, and took a thoughtful step
or two.

"Firmer, safer ground," he repeated. "Once you said to me, 'Let us each
enjoy our own griefs unmolested.'" He laughed. "Didn't you say
that--years ago?"

"Yes."

"And I replied--years ago--that I had no griefs to enjoy. Didn't I?
Well, then, if this is grief, Shiela, I wouldn't exchange it for another
man's happiness. So, if you please, I'll follow your advice and enjoy
it in my own fashion.... Shiela, you don't smile very often, but I wish
you would now."

But the ghost of a smile left her pallor unchanged. She moved toward the
stairs, wearily, stopped and turned.

"It cannot end this way," she said; "I want you to know how--to know--to
know that I--am--sensible of w-what honour you have done me. Wait! I--I
can't let you think that I--do not--care, Mr. Hamil. Believe that I
do!--oh, deeply. And forgive me--" She stretched out one hand. He took
it, holding it between both of his for a moment, lightly.

"Is all clear between us, Calypso dear?"

"It will be--when I have courage to tell you."

"Then all's well with the world--if it's still under-foot--or somewhere
in the vicinity. I'll find it again; you'll be good enough to point it
out to me, Shiela.... I've an engagement to improve a few square miles
of it.... That's what I need--plenty of work--don't I, Shiela?"

The clear mellow horn of a motor sounded from the twilit lawn; the
others were arriving. He dropped her hand; she gathered her filmy skirts
and swiftly mounted the great stairs, leaving him to greet her father
and Gray on the terrace.

"Hello, Hamil!" called out Cardross, senior, from the lawn, "are you
game for a crack at the ducks to-morrow? My men report Ruffle Lake full
of coots and blue-bills, and there'll be bigger duck in the West
Lagoons."

"I'm going too," said Gray, "also Shiela if she wants to--and four
guides and that Seminole, Little Tiger."

Hamil glanced restlessly at the forest where his work lay. And h