Why not forgive me for that? Forgive me for not having known how to make you happier?"
"You are making fun of me," she sobbed. "You are only sneering at me."
Something told him that she was softening, that soon she would be talking with him like a reasonable being. Was it possible that from to-night he might feel he had a friend for a wife instead of an enemy? He knew he must not let pride stand in the way of it—nor justice even. There was nothing to be gained and much to be lost by telling her that during the whole of their married life she had persistently played the fool.
"On my honor I am not," he said. "Louise, listen to me. I am a blundering fellow. Somehow or other I have always failed to give you what you wanted. That being so, I ask your help. Help me to be what you wish me to be. We are young, and there is still time. I will do anything. I beg you to help me."
He made her raise her head, and looked her full in the face with all the intensity those blazing blue eyes of his were capable of.
"Will you help me?"
It was undoubtedly the great moment of Louise's life. She knew it. Eric had made it possible for her to be magnanimous. But the gods
