sooner to make myself a lover, I would not have to resign
that place to another man.

"Why do I pour these personal sorrows upon you, my Lady of Sympathy? I
am heartsick for comfort.

"Yours, "J."

Bambi laid her cheek against the poor, hurt letter, and cried.

"My poor, bungling Jarvis, how I must have hurt you!"

She read it again, and all at once light flooded in.

"Why, it's Richard, of course! He thinks I am in love with Richard! The
dear old goose! He sees so little and sees that crooked."

She went in search of him, determined to tell the whole foolish story,
to explain the imaginary obstacles that divided them. But he was not to
be found, so the impulse died, and she determined to play the farce out
to its end, and now, that she knew the core of the whole situation, she
could make it count for their final readjustment.

She wrote him at once:

"MY DEAR JARVIS: At last I feel that there is truth between us. I have
suspected that you were not happy in your love life. But I wanted not to
pry into locked chambers. Now we can be glad of the bond that lies
between us, for I, too, go heart hungry through the days.

"I have not spoken to you of my home, or my husband, but now that you
have become such a part of my thought life, I feel no disloyalty in
the truth.

"My husband is a man who has never felt the want of affection. He is so
self-centred in his devotion to his work that I have always been shut
out of his heart. At first this did not trouble me, for I was ambitious,
too. But so many things have happened to develop me this last year, to
awaken me to my full womanhood!

"I have had to face, as you do, the ache of an unwanted love, tossed
back to eat its way like a corrosive acid. Once, not long ago, I
thought, perhaps, things were going to change for me. I thought he
wanted me. But now I have come to know that it is to another woman he
turns for sympathy and understanding.

"So, you see, my dear, we two have the same heart history. No wonder we
have felt our way through time and space, to clasp hands in such deep
affinity. I lay my hands upon your head, Jarvis.

"YOUR LADY."

His reply came by the first mail.

"Oh, my dear, my dear, we have found each other
at last, in all truth. It was meant from the beginning
of time that it should be so. Let me come to
you. I cannot bear to live another hour without
the touc