e was, at
last, seeing everything. He fell back on the one most evident thing he
saw, and had from the beginning seen. 'But Helen--she could never have
loved him. Such a marriage would be unfit for Helen. I'm not excusing
myself. I see I've been an unpardonable fool in one way.'

Miss Grizel's ire increased. 'Unfit for Helen? Why, pray? He would have
given her the position of a princess--in our funny modern sense. I
intended, and I made the marriage. I saw he'd fallen in love with
her--dear little man--though at the time he didn't know it himself. And
since then I've had the satisfaction--one of the greatest of my life--of
seeing how happy I had made both of them. It was obvious, touchingly so,
that he was desperately in love with Helen. Yes, Gerald, don't come to
me for sympathy and help. You've wrecked a thing I had set my heart on.
You've wrecked Mr. Kane, and my opinion is that you've wrecked Helen
too.'

Gerald, who had become very pale, kept his eyes on her, and he went back
to his one foothold in a rocking world. 'Helen could never have loved
him.'

Miss Grizel shook her hand impatiently above her knee. 'Love! Love! What
do you all mean with your love, I'd like to know? What's this sudden
love of yours for Helen, you who, until yesterday, were willing to marry
another woman for her money--or were you in love with her too? What's
Miss Jakes's love of Mr. Kane, who, until a week ago, thought herself in
love with you? And you may well ask me what is Mr. Kane's love of Helen,
who, until a week ago, thought himself in love with Miss Jakes? But
there I answer you that he is the only one of you who seems to me to
know what love is. One can respect his feeling; it means more than
himself and his own emotions. It means something solid and dependable.
Helen recognised it, and Helen's feeling for him--though it certainly
wasn't love in your foolish sense--was something that she valued more
than anything you can have to offer her. And I repeat, though I'm sorry
to pain you, that it is clear to me that you have wrecked her life as
well as Mr. Kane's.'

Miss Grizel had had her say. She stood up, her lips compressed, her eyes
weighty with their hard, good sense. And Gerald rose, too. He was at a
disadvantage, and an unfair one, but he did not think of that. He
thought, with stupefaction, of what he had done in this room the day
before to Franklin and to Helen. In the depths of his heart he couldn't
wish it undone, for he c