en. Yes, a
rich alliance if you liked, I do not doubt. There's a poor one
waiting for you, any time you like. You know that. You must have
seen it, a thousand times--"

She advanced to him easily and held out both her hands. "Now,
now!" she said. "Don't begin that. You'll only hurt us both. My
lieutenant, visionary as myself! Ah, we've failed."

"But everybody will blame you--you will have no place to go--it
will be horrible--you don't begin to know what it means. Of
course, we have made mistakes."

"Then let's not make the worst mistake of all," she said.

"But we could do so much--"

She turned upon him suddenly, pale, excited. "Do not!" she cried.
"Do not use those words! It seems to me that that is what all men
think and say. 'How much we could do--together!' Do not say that
to me."

At this he sobered. "Then there is some one else?" he said slowly.
"You've heard some one else use those words? I couldn't blame him.
Well, I wish him happiness. And I wish you happiness, too. I had
no right to presume."

"Happiness!--what is that?" she said slowly. "I've been trying to
find it all my life. My God! How crooked were all the mismated
planets at my birth! I haven't been happy myself. I do not think
that I've added one iota to the happiness of any one else, I've
just failed, that's all. And I've tried so hard--to do something,
something for the world! Oh, can a woman--can she, ever?" For
once shaken, she dropped her face an instant in her hands, he
standing by, mute, and suffering much as herself at seeing her thus
suffer.

"But now," she continued after a time, "--I want to ask you whether
I've been ungenerous or vindictive with you--"

"Vindictive? You? Never! But why should you be?"

"Captain," she said easily, "my lieutenant, my friend, let me
say--I will not be specific--I will not mention names or dates; but
do you think, if you were a woman, you could ever marry a man who
once, behind your back, with not even eagerness to incite him, but
coolly, deliberately--had played a game of cards for--you?"

He stiffened as though shot. "I know. But you misunderstand. I
did not play for you. I played to relieve a situation--because I
thought you wished--because it seemed the solution of a situation
hard for both of us. I thought--"

"Solution!" She blazed up now, tigerlike, and her words came
through set lips. "I'd never have told you I knew, if you hadn't
said what you have.