but his first words sorely tried her
fortitude; she came to his chair and sank down beside it, taking his
hands in both hers. 'Vincent,' she cried, with a sob that would not be
repressed, 'I cannot bear it if you talk so.... I know all, all that
you have suffered and given up ... he has told me--at last!'

Vincent looked down with an infinite pity upon the sweet contrite face
raised to his. 'You poor child,' he said, 'you know then? How could he
tell you! Mabel, I tried so hard to spare you this--and now it has
come! What can I say to you?'

'Say that you forgive me--if you ever can!' she said, 'when I remember
all the hard things I said and thought of you, when all the time--oh,
I was blind, or I must have seen the truth! And I can never, never
make it up to you now!'

'Do you think,' he asked, 'that to see you here, and know that you
understand me at last, would not make up for much harder treatment
than I ever had from you, Mabel? If that were all--but he has told
you, you said, told you the whole sad story. Mabel--what are you going
to do?'

She put the question aside with a gesture of heart-sick pride: 'What
does it matter about me? I can only think of you just now--let me
forget all the rest while I may!'

'Dying men have their privileges,' he said, 'and I have not much more
time. Mabel, I must ask you: What have you said to Mark?'

'Nothing,' she said, with a low moan, 'what was there to say? He must
know that he has no wife now.'

'Mabel, you have not left him!' he cried.

'Not yet,' she said, turning away wearily; 'he brought me to this
house--he is here now, I believe.... You are torturing me with these
questions, Vincent.'

'Answer me this once,' he persisted, 'do you mean to leave him?'

She rose to her feet. 'What else can I do,' she demanded, 'now that I
know? The Mark I loved has gone for ever--he never even existed! I
have no husband beyond the name. I have been in a dream all this time,
and I wake to find myself alone! Only an hour ago and Mark was all the
world to me--think what he must be to me from this time! No, I cannot
live with him. I could not breathe the same air with him. I am ashamed
that I could ever have loved him. He is all unworthy, and mean, and
false, and I thought him noble and generous!'

'You are too hard,' said Vincent, 'he is not all bad, he was weak--not
wicked; if I had not felt that, I should never have tried to keep his
secret, and forced him, against his will, to