e hesitated momentarily. "We thought it would be easier for you than
the truth," he said then.

"You mean Max thought so," she said quickly. "You didn't, Nick!"

"Perhaps not," he admitted.

"I'm sure you didn't," she said. "You know me better than that." Again
she stood still in the sunshine, lifting her face to the glory. "Love
conquers so many things," she said.

"All things," put in Nick quickly.

She looked at him again. "I don't know about all things, Nick," she
said.

"I have proved it," he said.

She shook her head slowly. "But I haven't." She passed from the subject
as if it were one she could not bear to discuss openly. "What made you
think the truth would hurt me so, I wonder? It was only the first great
shock I couldn't bear. That nearly killed me. But now that it is
over--and I can see clearly again--Nick, tell me,--as her friend--her
only friend--could I have done anything else?"

Nick was silent. He had asked himself the same question many times, and
had not found an answer.

"Nick," she said pleadingly, "none but a friend could have done it. It
was--an act of love."

"I know it was," he said.

"And yet you blame me?" Her voice was low, full of the most earnest
entreaty.

"You blamed Max," he pointed out.

"Oh, but Max didn't love her!" He heard a note of quick pain in her
voice. "Oh, don't you see," she said, "how love makes all the
difference? Surely that was what St. Paul meant when he said that love
was the fulfilling of the law. Nick, you must agree with me in this. It
was utterly hopeless. Think of it! Think of it! If she had been living
now!" A sudden hard shiver went through her. "Nick, if I had been in her
place--wouldn't you have done the same for me?"

"I don't know," he said.

But she clung to him more closely. "You do know, dear! You do know!"

And then Nick did a strange, impulsive thing. He suddenly flung down his
reserve and bared to her his inmost soul.

"Yes, Olga _mia_, I do know," he said. "I would have done the same for
you. I nearly did the same for Muriel when we were in a tight corner
long ago at Wara. But whether it's right or whether it's wrong, God
alone can judge. It may be we take too much upon us, or it may be He
means us to do it. That is what I have never yet decided. But I solemnly
believe with you that love makes all the difference. Love is the one
extenuating circumstance which He will recognize and pass. It isn't the
outward appearance that counts