ppy--if I were always near him--for the few months he
has to live."

"He would have a new lease of life given him with you," I ventured.

The girl shook her head. "He says that the specialists gave him three
months at the most. And twelve days out of those three months have gone
already, since he left California."

For an instant a doubt of her shot through me. Ralston Murray had been a
get-rich-quick oil speculator, so I had heard, anyhow, he was supposed
to be extremely well off. Besides, there was that lovely old place in
Devonshire, of which his widow would be mistress. I knew nothing of
Rosemary Brandreth's circumstances, and little of her character or
heart, except as I might judge from her face, and voice, and charming
ways. Was I _wrong_ in the judgment I'd impulsively formed? Could it be
that she didn't truly care for Murray--that if she married him in spite
of the mysterious "obstacle," it would be for what she could get?

Actually I shivered as this question asked itself in my mind! And I was
ashamed of it. But her tone and look had been strange. When I tried to
cheer her by hinting that Murray's lease of life might be longer because
of her love, she had looked frightened, almost horrified.

For the first time I deliberately tried to read her soul, whose
sincerity I had more or less taken for granted. I stared into her eyes
through the green dusk which made us both look like mermaids under
water. Surely that exquisite face couldn't mask sordidness? I pushed the
doubt away.

"All the more reason for you to make radiant the days that are left, if
you're strong enough to bear the strain," I said. And Rosemary answered
that she was strong enough for anything that would help him. She would
tell Ralston, she added, that she had asked my advice.

"He wanted me to do it," she said. "He thought I oughtn't to decide
without speaking to a sweet, wise woman. And _you_ are a sweet, wise
woman, although you're so young! When you are better, will you come on
deck and talk to Ralston?"

"Of course I will, if you think he'd care to have me," I promised. And
it was extraordinary how soon that headache of mine passed away! I was
able to talk with Ralston that evening, and assure him that, in my
opinion, he wasn't _at all_ selfish in wanting Rosemary Brandreth to
"sacrifice" herself for him. It would be no sacrifice to a woman who
loved a man, I argued. He had done the right thing, it seemed to me, in
asking Mrs. Brandr