eet
to-day, for it is the first time for--oh, so long, that I have been to
any public place!" She cast a quick glance at her black dress, and an
involuntary shudder shook her frame. "But to-day I felt better, and it
was so bright, and they persuaded me. I have dreaded meeting people,
but to-day I didn't mind. I think I _wanted_ to come. And then I saw
you, and your face was so familiar that I thought I had met you long ago
and had forgotten."

"You had not forgotten. You had never remembered anything so well. In
that first moment you _knew_ that I was different from the rest. It was
written on your face, dear; there was no need for words! There is
something else written there which hurts me to see. I think you have
needed me, Eve!"

She drew her hand from his and pressed it to her head with a gesture
more eloquent than words. Rupert's presentiment of trouble had been
true; it now remained to discover the nature of her grief.

He was conscious of steadying himself mentally and morally, before he
possessed himself of the disengaged left hand, which lay on her lap.
Deftly, tenderly, his fingers felt hers, moving tentatively upwards over
the joints, feeling with trembling anxiety for the presence of rings, of
_the_ ring! The shock at finding the tell-tale third finger bare was
almost as largely compounded of surprise as of joy, so strong had been
the presentiment of a husband in the background. The eyes which he
raised to hers were radiant with joy, but there was no answering gleam
in the depths into which he gazed. Their sombre gloom chilled him in
the midst of his ecstasy.

"Eve," he cried softly, "smile at me! I was wrong to conjure up dead
ghosts to-day when we ought to think of nothing but the happiness of
meeting. Eve! I have been preparing for you all these years; now I am
free to do as you will. It is for you to order, and I shall obey. We
will go where you will, live where you choose--"

"You will take me away?" She bent forward, her eyes peering into his,
so that he saw more closely than he had done before the beautiful,
ravaged face, with its slumbering passion, its deep, overmastering
gloom. There shrilled through her voice an almost incredible joy.
"_You_--_will_--_take_--_me away_?"

Dempster laughed happily. Ay, indeed, he would take her away. She was
free, there was no barrier between them; openly, honourably, before all
the world he could claim her as his own--could make her hi