quiet precision.

Finally, as he looked at her again, she spoke. "I don't want to
seem over-critical--ungrateful, but--" her breath came
quickly--"though you have been so awfully good to me, I can't help
feeling--that you might have done more for Guy, if--if you had been
kinder when he went wrong. And--" her eyes filled with sudden
tears--"that thought spoils--just everything."

"I see," said Burke, and though his lips were grim his voice was
wholly free from harshness. "Mrs. Merston told you all about it,
did she?"

Sylvia's colour rose again. She turned slightly from him. "She
didn't say much," she said.

There was a pause. Then unexpectedly Burke's hand closed over her
two clasped ones. "So I've got to be punished, have I?" he said.

She shook her head, shrinking a little though she suffered his
touch. "No. Only--I can't forget it,--that's all."

"Or forgive?" said Burke.

She swallowed her tears with an effort. "No, not that. I'm not
vindictive. But--oh, Burke--" she turned to him impulsively,--"I
wish--I wish--we could find Guy!"

He stiffened almost as if at a blow. "Why?" he demanded sternly.

For a moment his look awed her, but only for a moment; the longing
in her heart was so great as to overwhelm all misgiving. She
grasped his arm tightly between her hands.

"If we could only find him--and save him--save him somehow from the
horrible pit he seems to have fallen into! We could do it between
us--I feel sure we could do it---if only--if only--we could find
him!"

Breathlessly her words rushed out. It seemed as if she had
stumbled almost inadvertently upon the solution of the problem that
had so tormented her. She marvelled now that she had ever been
able to endure inaction with regard to Guy. She was amazed at
herself for having been so easily content. It was almost as if in
that moment she heard Guy's voice very far away, calling to her for
help.

And then, swift as a lightning-flash, striking dismay to her soul,
came the consciousness of Burke gazing straight at her with that in
his eyes which she could not--dare not--meet.

She gripped his arm a little tighter. She was quivering from head
to foot. "We could do it between us," she breathed again.
"Wouldn't it be worth it? Oh, wouldn't it be worth it?"

But Burke spoke no word. He sat rigid, looking at her.

A feeling of coldness ran through her--such a feeling as she had
experienced on her wedding-day under the skele