know...what you think of me?"

"Good God, Justine, why do you try to strip life naked? I don't know
what's been going on in me these last weeks----"

"You must know what you think of my motive...for doing what I did."

She saw in his face how he shrank from the least allusion to the act
about which their torment revolved. But he forced himself to raise his
head and look at her. "I have never--for one moment--questioned your
motive--or failed to see that it was justified...under the
circumstances...."

"Oh, John--John!" she broke out in the wild joy of hearing herself
absolved; but the next instant her subtle perceptions felt the
unconscious reserve behind his admission.

"Your mind justifies me--not your heart; isn't _that_ your misery?" she
said.

He looked at her almost piteously, as if, in the last resort, it was
from her that light must come to him. "On my soul, I don't know...I
can't tell...it's all dark in me. I know you did what you thought
best...if I had been there, I believe I should have asked you to do
it...but I wish to God----"

She interrupted him sobbingly. "Oh, I ought never to have let you love
me! I ought to have seen that I was cut off from you forever. I have
brought you wretchedness when I would have given my life for you! I
don't deserve that you should forgive me for that."

Her sudden outbreak seemed to restore his self-possession. He went up to
her and took her hand with a quieting touch.

"There is no question of forgiveness, Justine. Don't let us torture each
other with vain repinings. Our business is to face the thing, and we
shall be better for having talked it out. I shall be better, for my
part, for having told Mr. Langhope. But before I go I want to be sure
that you understand the view he may take...and the effect it will
probably have on our future."

"Our future?" She started. "No, I don't understand."

Amherst paused a moment, as if trying to choose the words least likely
to pain her. "Mr. Langhope knows that my marriage was...unhappy; through
my fault, he no doubt thinks. And if he chooses to infer that...that you
and I may have cared for each other...before...and that it was _because_
there was a chance of recovery that you----"

"Oh----"

"We must face it," he repeated inflexibly. "And you must understand
that, if there is the faintest hint of this kind, I shall give up
everything here, as soon as it can be settled legally--God, how Tredegar
will like the job!--an