I'm in
a delicate position. You must understand without forcing me to say too
much. You are the last man in the world Miss Kirkstone wants to know
about her trouble until she has triumphed, and it is over. Delicacy,
perhaps; a woman's desire to keep something she is ashamed of from the
one man she looks up to above all other men--to keep it away from him
until she has cleared herself so that there is no suspicion. McDowell,
if I were you, I'd be proud of her for that."

McDowell turned away, and for a space Keith saw the muscles in the back
of his neck twitching.

"Derwent, maybe you've guessed, maybe you understand," he said after a
moment with his face still turned to the window. "Of course she will
never know. I'm too Old, old enough to be her father. But I've got the
right to watch over her, and if any man ever injures her--"

His fists grew knotted, and softly Keith said behind him:

"You'd possibly do what John Keith did to the man who wronged his
father. And because the Law is not always omniscient, it is also
possible that Shan Tung may have to answer in some such way. Until
then, until she comes to you of her own free will and with gladness in
her eyes tells you her own secret and why she kept it from you--until
she does that, I say, it is your part to treat her as if you had seen
nothing, guessed nothing, suspected nothing. Do that, McDowell, and
leave the rest to me."

He went out, leaving the iron man still with his face to the window.

With Mary Josephine there was no subterfuge. His mind was still
centered in his own happiness. He could not wipe out of his brain the
conviction that if he waited for Shan Tung he was waiting just so long
under the sword of Damocles, with a hair between him and doom. He hoped
that Miriam Kirkstone's refusal to confide in him and her reluctance to
furnish him with the smallest facts in the matter would turn Mary
Josephine's sympathy into a feeling of indifference if not of actual
resentment. He was disappointed. Mary Josephine insisted on having Miss
Kirkstone over for dinner the next day, and from that hour something
grew between the two girls which Keith knew he was powerless to
overcome. Thereafter he bowed his head to fate. He must wait for Shan
Tung.

"If it wasn't for your promise not to fall in love, I'd be afraid,"
Mary Josephine confided to him that night, perched on the arm of his
big chair. "At times I was afraid today, Derry. She's lovely. And you
like pre