make believe. Then they came. I heard them, but I didn't know that they were not mine by right till Mrs. Madden told me———'
'The butler's wife? What?'
'One of them—I heard—she saw. And knew. Hers! Not for me. I didn't know at first. Perhaps I was jealous. Afterwards, I began to understand that it was only because I loved them, not because——— . . . Oh, you must bear or lose,' she said piteously. 'There is no other way—and yet they love me. They must! Don't they?'
There was no sound in the room except the lapping voices of the fire, but we two listened intently, and she at least took comfort from what she heard. She recovered herself and half rose. I sat still in my chair by the screen.
'Don't think me a wretch to whine about myself like this, but—but I'm all in the dark, you know, and you can see.'
In truth I could see, and my vision confirmed me in my resolve, though that was like the very parting of spirit and flesh. Yet a little longer I would stay since it was the last time.
'You think it is wrong, then?' she cried sharply, though I had said nothing.
'Not for you. A thousand times no. For you it is right. . . . I am grateful to you beyond words. For me it would be wrong. For me only. . . .'
'Why?' she said, but passed her hand before her face as she had done at our second meeting in the wood. 'Oh, I see,' she went on simply as a child. 'For you it would be wrong.' Then
