"I suppose I do."
"Do you want as fine a fellow as Phil driven any further? If he leaves that hospital now, and goes out to the exposure and anxiety of a search for her, there will be a tragedy that no after regrets can avert. Edith, what did you say to Miss Comstock that made her run away from Phil?"
The girl turned her face from him and sat still, but the man gripping her hands and waiting in agony could see that she was shaken by the jolting of the heart in her breast.
"Edith, what did you say?"
"What difference can it make?"
"It might furnish some clue to her action."
"It could not possibly."
"Phil thinks so. He has thought so until his brain is worn enough to give way. Tell me, Edith!"
"I told her Phil was mine! That if he were away from her an hour and back in my presence, he would be to me as he always had been."
"Edith, did you believe that?"
"I would have staked my life, my soul on it!"
"Do you believe it now?"
There was no answer. Henderson took her other hand and gripping both of them firmly he said softly, "Don't mind me, dear. I don't count! I'm just old Hart! You can tell me anything. Do you still believe that?"
The beautiful head barely moved in negation. Henderson gathered both her hands in one of his and stretched
