soul was meant for yours, and the next moment
distrusted it!" he reproached himself in bitterness. "What a fool--what
a hypocrite! If you've known her since the beginning of things, you
should have known by instinct what she was, down under the surface
frivolities and foolishnesses, mistakes any untaught girl might make."

This Vanno, who was all man and not prince, said that no punishment
could be too severe for one who doubts where he loves. He saw himself
justly punished now, by learning Mary's truth through her noble
indignation. Because he had waited for this proof he acknowledged that
he had sinned beyond most women's pardon; yet he meant to win hers. He
cared more for her than before, and determined that he would never give
her up; yet all the while that other, worldly Vanno, who was prince as
well as man, held stiffly back. How could one whose small knowledge of
women good and bad came mostly through hearsay be sure of a woman?

His one boyish venture in love he saw now had been in shallow water; but
it had not tended to strengthen his faith in the innate nobility of
women. On the contrary, it had shown him that a woman who seemed sweet
and loving could be hard and calculating, even mercenary. Innocence
being a charming pose, why should it not be adopted by the cleverest
actresses, professional sirens, specialists in enchantment, who wished
to be admired by all men, even men for whom they cared nothing? How
could he tell even now that this girl was not a clever actress who
judged him well and planned to lead him on?

So he asked himself questions, and answered in rage, only to begin
again, fiercely breaking down one set of arguments and building up
another.

It was the arrival of Dodo Wardropp with Dom Ferdinand on the bridge
which drove him away and out of himself sufficiently to bid his host and
hostess good-night.

When the motor launch had taken him ashore, the impulse was very strong
in him to go up to Roquebrune and tell the cure what had happened. He
knew that his friend kept a light burning all night in a window, and he
could see it, as Mary had seen it, sending out its message for any who
needed help. Yet what good could come of talking to one who had never
met the girl? Fate had kept the two apart, for some reason, and Vanno
could but consult his own heart. Its counsel was to write to Mary,
explaining all those things that she had not let him explain in words.

This matter of explanation seemed e