ional
voice had a new tenderness. "Will you allow me to help you? We're not
such strangers as we seem. For years I've been interested in you. I was
always hearing of your adventures in Mexico, Korea, the Balkans and last
of all at the Front. You've been quite a romantic figure in my life.
You've always seemed so strong; and I admire strength immensely. I never
dreamt that a time would ever come when I would be able to help you.
You're in love and she's not in love with you. You're older than she is
and it makes you unhappy. She has time to experiment, but for you it's
different; your love is bound up with the last of your youth. Because
you've been unhappy, you've been unwise. Your foolishness ended
yesterday with the return of Reggie Pollock. I received the news of his
return this morning. So you came down here to me, which was perfectly
natural."

He shifted his gaze and stared out of the window, puzzled and troubled.
"Unfortunately for me, Lady Dawn, a good deal of what you've said is
true. But I don't see how it makes it natural that I should have come to
you. I've been wanting to come for a very long time, but was given to
understand that what I had to say might be distasteful."

"You must put that out of your mind." She said it comfortingly, as
though to a little boy. "There's nothing distasteful in what you have
to say. It may cause awkwardness with Sir Tobias; but if you can assure
me that you're really in earnest over Terry, I'll be quite willing to
risk that in order to become your ally."

He smiled towards her through the darkness. "There's nothing I should
like better than to reckon you as my ally. And now I see why we've been
talking at cross-purposes. You think that I've come to wheedle Terry's
address out of you. Perhaps I have, since you've put the idea into my
head. And with regard to my earnestness, nothing except Terry in the
whole world matters. She's romance, self-fulfillment and, as you've
said, the last dream of my youth. If I supposed that I were going to
lose her, I would rather not have---- But I didn't come here to burden
you with my troubles. I came to do something for you--something which
I've tried to avoid doing. Something which has forced itself upon me and
followed me until---- It's as though I'd been compelled by a personality
outside myself. I may make you very unhappy----"

She leant forward, bringing her face so close that he could feel the
fanning of her breath. The moon was new