on the desk, watching
them with sharp, incurious eyes--this would be her niche for ever. She
would be left for ever with the crusts and the dregs. And Kerr's figure
in the twilight seemed each time it moved to be on the point of
vanishing into the grayness. He moved continually up and down the narrow
spaces between the tables. He troubled the dry repose of the place.
Sometimes he looked at her, studying, questioning, undecided. Once he
stopped, as if just there an idea had arrested him. He looked at her, as
if, she thought, he were afraid of her. Then for long moments he stood
looking blankly, steadily out of the window. He did not approach her. He
seemed to avoid her, until, as though he had come at last to his
decision, he walked straight up to her and stood above her. She rose to
meet him. He was smiling.

"Don't you know that you could easily get rid of me?" he demanded.
"Cressy would be too glad to do it for you; and there are more ways
than one that I could get the sapphire from you, if I could face the
idea of it--but really, really we care too much for each other. There's
only one way out for you and me and the sapphire. I'll take you both."

Her clenched hands opened and fell at her sides. A great wave of
helplessness flowed over her. Her eyes, her throat filled up with a rush
of blinding tears. She put out her hands, trying to thrust him off, but
he took the wrists and held them apart, and held her a moment helpless
before him.

"Oh, no," she whispered.

"But I love you."

Her head fell back. She looked at him as if he had spoken the
incredible.

"I love you," he repeated, "though God knows how it has happened!"

The blood rushed to her heart.

He was drawing her nearer.

She felt his breath upon her face; she saw the image of herself in his
eyes. She started to herself on the edge of danger, and made a struggle
to release her wrists. He let them go. She sank down into her chair.

"Why not? Why won't you go with me?" she heard him say again, still
close beside her.

"I can't, I can't!" She clung to the words, but for the moment she had
forgotten her reasons. She had forgotten everything but the wonderful
fact that he loved her. He was there within reach, and she had only to
stretch out her hand, only to say one word, and he would cut through the
ranks of her perplexities and terrors, and carry her away.

"Why not, if you love me?" he insisted. "Are you afraid of those people?
Are you afraid of