ing. She didn't faint, but her knees
collapsed. I held her for an instant, then supported her till she had
sunk into a chair which was luckily near. If she hadn't been in my arms
I think she would have fallen. Her head lay against the high back of the
grandfather chair, and her face was so white that she reminded me of a
snow-wreath flitting past one's window, ghostlike at twilight.

Her eyes were half closed. She didn't look at me, nor seem to be any
longer conscious of my presence; but I dropped on my knees beside her,
and covered her cold hands with my own.

"I oughtn't to have told you so abruptly," I said. "Sir Beverley trusted
me. I've betrayed his trust. But I thought, as you knew there was hope,
hearing that now it was certainty wouldn't excite you too much. Oh,
Rosemary, dear, think how glorious it will be! No more fears, no more
anxieties. Instead of saying to yourself, 'I have him only for a few
weeks,' you will know that you have years together to look forward to.
You will be like Jim and me. You can travel. You can----"

"Yes," Rosemary almost whispered. "Yes, it is glorious--for Ralston. I
am thankful. You are--good to sympathize so much, and I'm grateful.
I--I'd hardly dreamed before that he _could_ get well. All those
specialists, they were so sure; many of them very celebrated--as
celebrated as Sir Beverley--and he is only one against a dozen. That's
why it is--a surprise, you see."

She was making so violent an effort to control herself that I felt
guiltily conscious of my eyes upon her face. One would have thought
that, instead of giving her the key to happiness, I had handed her that
of a dungeon where she would be shut up for life.

"Would you rather I'd go?" I stammered. "Would you like to be alone?"

She nodded, moistening her lips. "Yes, thank you, Elizabeth," she
breathed. "I--yes, for a little while I'd like to be alone--with my
joy--to pray."

I jumped up like a marionette. "Of course," I said. "I understand."

But I didn't understand, as perhaps she guessed from my quivering voice.

"I wish I could make you--_really_ understand," she sighed. "I--I'm
different from other women. I can't take things as they do--as you
would. But--I told you once, before, _whatever happens I love him_."

"I'm sure you do," I answered, as I opened the door and slipped softly
out. Yet that wasn't so true as it had been a few minutes ago. I felt as
if I'd been through an earthquake which had shaken me up w