mean that nothing will turn me aside from my determination,
nothing,--nothing.'

'But supposing you have a wife,--supposing that when you were a boy,
before you lost your memory, you married some one, what then?'

'Don't talk rubbish, old man,' was his reply.

'After all,' I reflected that night when I went to bed, 'perhaps it is
best that he should speak to her. She will regard his declaration as
madness, and will tell him so. He never saw her until three hours ago,
and if, as I suspect, Springfield has fascinated her, she will make him
see what a fool he has been. Then he will give up his madness.'

That was why I left them together the next day. All the same, there was
a curious pain in my heart as I saw them walk away side by side, for I
knew by the light in his eyes that he meant to carry out his
determination.

CHAPTER XXIV

A STRANGE LOVE-MAKING

Few men tell each other about their love-making, especially Englishmen.
Mostly we regard such things as too sacred to speak about, even to
those we trust and love the most. Besides, there is something in the
character of the normal Englishman which is reserved and secretive, and
the thought of telling about our love-making is utterly repugnant to
us. Nevertheless, Edgecumbe told me the story of their conversation
that afternoon almost word for word as it took place.

He spoke of it quite naturally, too, as though it were the right thing
to do. He looked upon me as his one friend, and perhaps the abnormal
condition of his life made him do what under other circumstances he
would never have thought of. Anyhow, he told me, while I listened
incredulous, but almost spellbound.

They had been but a few minutes together, when he commenced his
confession. They had left the lane in which they had been walking and
were crossing a field which led to a piece of woodland, now beginning
to be tinged by those autumn tints which are so beautiful in our
western counties.

It was one of those autumn days, which are often more glorious than
even those of midsummer. The sweetness and freshness of summer had
gone, and the browning leaves and shortening days warned us that winter
was coming on apace. But as they walked, the sun shone in a cloudless
sky. The morning had been gloomy and showery, but now, as if by a
magician's wand, the clouds had been swept away, and nothing but the
great dome of blue, illumined by the brightness of the sun, was over
them. The rai