roceed with caution. 'Yes,' he said, 'there is
something I must say to you--you will give me a hearing, Mabel, won't
you?'

'I told you I would hear you. I hope you will say something to make me
think of you differently.'

He did not understand this exactly, but it did not sound precisely
encouraging.

'I hoped you didn't think me a very bad sort of fellow,' he said. And
then, as she made no answer, he plunged at once into his declaration.
He was a cold lover on the stage, but practice had at least given him
fluency, and now he was very much in earnest--he had never known till
then all that she was to him: there was real passion in his voice, and
a restrained power which might have moved her once.

But Mabel heard him to the end only because she felt unable to stop
him without losing control over herself. She felt the influence of his
will, but it made her the more thankful that she had so powerful a
safeguard against it.

He finished and she still made no response, and he began to feel
decidedly awkward; but when at last she turned her face to him,
although her eyes were bright, it was not with the passion he had
hoped to read there.

'And it really was that, after all!' she said bitterly. 'Do you know,
I expected something very different.'

'I said what I feel. I might have said it better perhaps,' he
retorted, 'but at least tell me what you expected me to say, and I
will say that.'

'Yes, I will tell you. I expected an explanation.'

'An explanation!' he repeated blankly; 'of what?'

'Is there nothing you can remember which might call for some excuse if
you found I had heard of it? I will give you every chance, Harold.
Think--is there nothing?'

Caffyn had forgotten the stamp episode as soon as possible, as a
disagreeable expedient to which he had been obliged to resort, and
which had served its end, and so he honestly misunderstood this
question.

'Upon my soul, no,' he said earnestly. 'I don't pretend to have been
any better than my neighbours, but since I began to think of you, I
never cared about any other woman. If you've been told any silly
gossip----'

Mabel laughed, but not merrily. 'Oh, it is not _that_--really it did
not occur to me to be jealous at any time--especially now. Harold,
Dolly has told me everything about that letter,' she added, as he
still looked doubtful.

He understood now at all events, and took a step back as if to avoid a
blow. _Everything!_ his brain seemed dulled fo