it merciful--to do
that?"

The woman's tone was baffling. Fyles searched for its meaning.
Resentment he had anticipated. He had been prepared for it, and to
resist it, and break it down by the ardor of his appeal. That dreary
regret was more than he could bear, and he hastened to protest.

"Say, Kate," he cried, his sun-tanned features flushing with a quick
shame. "Don't think I've come here to remind you. Don't think I've
come along to taunt you with the loss of our--our mad wager. I want to
forget it. It became a gamble on a man's life, and--and I hate the
thought. You're free of it, and I wish to God it had never been made."

The bitter sincerity of his final words was not without its effect.
Kate stirred. Then she turned. Her beautiful eyes, so full of pathos,
so full of remorse, looked straight into his.

"Then--why did you come here?" she asked.

The man started up. The chair dropped back on to its four legs with a
clatter. His arms were outstretched, and the passionate fire of his
eyes blazed up as the quick, hot words escaped his lips.

"Why? Why?" he demanded, his eyes widening, his whole body vibrant
with a consuming passion. "Don't you know? Kate, Kate, I came because
I couldn't stay away. I came because there's just nothing in the world
worth living for but you. I came because I just love you to death,
and--there's nothing else. Say, listen. I went right back from here
with one fixed purpose. Maybe it won't tell you a thing. Maybe you
won't understand. I went back to get quit of the force--honorably. I'd
made my peace with them. Oh, yes, I'd done that. Then I demanded leave
of absence pending my resignation. They had to grant it. I am never
going back. Oh, yes, I knew what I was up against. I wanted you. I
wanted you so that I couldn't see a thing else in any other direction.
There is no other direction. So I came straight here to--to ask you to
forget. I came here to tell you all I feel about--the work I had to do
here. I came here with a wild sort of forlorn hope you could forgive.
You see, I even believed that but for--for that--there was just a
shadow of hope for me. Kate----!"

The woman suddenly held up her hand. And when she spoke there was
nothing of the Kate he had always known in the humility of her tone.

"It is not I who must forgive," she said quickly. "If there is any
forgiveness on this earth it is I who need it."

"You? Forgiveness?"

The man's face wore blank incredulity.

Kat