her sank in spite of all her courage.

He moved at last, but it was a movement of constraint. He laid his
free hand on her shoulder. "Crying won't help," he said. "I think
we had better be getting back."

And then, for the sake of the old love, she made her supreme
effort. She lifted her face; it was white to the lips, but it bore
no sign of tears. "I can't go," she said, "till--I have seen Guy."

He made a sharp gesture. "Ah!" he said. "I thought that was
coming."

"Yes, you knew it! You knew it!" Passionately she uttered the
words. "It's the one thing that's got to be settled between
us--the only thing left that counts. Yes, you mean to refuse. I
know that. But--before you refuse--wait, please wait! I am asking
it quite as much for your sake as for mine."

"And for his," said Burke, with a twist of the lips more bitter
than the words.

But she caught them up unflinching. "Yes, and for his. We've set
out to save him, you and I. And--we are not going to turn back.
Burke, I ask you to help me--I implore you to help me--in this
thing. You didn't refuse before."

"I wish to Heaven I had!" he said, "I might have known how it would
end!"

"No--no! And you owe him your life too. Don't forget that! He
saved you. Are you going to let him sink--after that?" She reached
up and held him by the shoulders, imploring him with all her soul.
"You can't do it! Oh, you can't do it!" she said. "It isn't--you."

He looked at her with a certain doggedness. "Not your conception
of me perhaps," he said, and suddenly his arms closed about her
quivering form. "But--am I--the sort of man you have always taken
me to be? Tell me! Am I?"

She turned her face aside, hiding it against his shoulder. "I
know--what you can be," she said faintly.

"Yes." Grimly he answered her. "You've seen the ugly side of me
at last, and it's that that you are up against now." He paused a
moment, then very sombrely he ended. "I might force you to tell me
the whole truth of this business, but I shall not--simply because I
don't want to hear it now. I know very well he's been making love
to you, tempting you. But I am going to put the infernal matter
away, and forget it--as far as possible. We may never reach the
top of the world now, but we'll get out of this vile slough at any
cost. You won't find me hard to live with if you only play the
game,--and put that damned scoundrel out of your mind for good."

"And do you t