all times by their innocence. Her mouth, too, was the soft
mouth of a young girl kept apart from sordid life. But her forehead, the
noble breadth between the black tracery of her eyebrows, expressed the
student whose weird, lofty knowledge had so often abashed my ignorance.

Only my ignorance? Now as she looked at me across the room, all
self-confidence trickled away from me. What distinguished me from a
thousand men she might meet on any city street? What had I ever said
worth note in the hours we had spent together? Now she saw me in the
light, plainly commonplace; and remembering myself lame, I stood amazed
at the audacity with which I had laid claim to her.

She was rising from the chair, gently putting aside Phillida's detaining
hands. She had not spoken one word since her faltered speech to me,
upstairs. Neither Vere nor Phillida had heard her voice. She had given
her hand to each of them and submitted to Phil's care with a docility I
failed to recognize in my companion of the dark. Her decisive movement
now was more like the Desire Michell I knew. Only, what was she about to
do? Repudiate my violence and me--perhaps go back to her hiding-place?

She came straight to where I stood, not daring even to advance toward
her. We might have been alone in the room. I rather think we were, to
her preoccupation.

"You must go away," she said. "If there is any hope, it is in that.
Nothing else matters, now; nothing! If you wish, take me with you. It
would be wiser to leave me. But nothing really matters except that you
should not stay here. I will obey you in everything if you will only go.
Take your car and drive--drive fast--anywhere!"

It is impossible to convey the desperate urgency and fervor of her low
voice. Phillida uttered an exclamation of fear. Vere wheeled about and
left the room. The front door closed behind him. The gravel crunched
under his tread on the path to the garage, and the rate at which the
light he carried moved through the fog showed that he was running. He
obviously accepted the warning exactly as it was given. After the
briefest indecision, Phillida hurried out into the hall.

For my part, I did nothing worth recording. I had made discovery of two
places where I was not the "lame feller." And if the first place was the
dreary Frontier, the second country was that rich Land of Promise in
Desire Michell's eyes.

What we said in our brief moment of solitude is not part of this
account.

Phill