ched, he turned towards her with
passionate entreaty.

"Celia, I'm a brute, a coward. Nothing that you can say of me is bad
enough. You've been an angel, and I know, I knew all the time that I
hurt you by delaying our marriage. You would have been satisfied with a
small beginning; it was I who was not content. I've kept you waiting
year after year, and now at the end I have sold myself to another
woman."

"You can't sell what is not your own. You can't _give_ what is not your
own. You belong to me. I'm not going to give you up!"

She rose, and going up to him clasped both hands round his arm. Her
face was white, but she smiled still; on her pale cheek a dimple dipped
and waned.

"You were tired and depressed. You saw the chance, and for a moment it
seemed the easiest way, but you can't do it, Jack; you can't do it!
There's something else that you had forgotten. There's _me_! You love
me, Jack."

She raised her face to his with a wooing smile, and a groan burst from
his lips. This was torture. His heart was torn, but his resolution
remained unchanged.

"Heaven knows I do. You are the only woman I can ever love. I love you
more dearly than anything on earth. Except one!"

"And that?"

"Myself. Success. The career that Lady Anne can give--"

"Poor Jack!" sighed Celia again. She leaned her head on his shoulder
with her old movement of confiding love. For five long years those
broad shoulders had been her resting-place, a bulwark between herself
and the outer world. She drew him with her to the sofa, and rested
there now. It was impossible to thrust her away.

"If you loved another woman, darling, if you had grown tired of me, I'd
let you go without a word. I'd _want_ you to go, but I'm not going to
let you spoil your life. I haven't loved you all these years without
knowing your faults as well as your virtues. The outside world sees
your cleverness and charm, but the best in you, the very best Jack--that
belongs to me! If you lost me, it would die. There'd be nothing left
but the husk of John Malham. The cold, hard husk with nothing inside."

"You may be right, Celia. I expect you are right, but I have made my
choice. You can't understand, no woman could understand how men can put
ambition before love, but they do it. It is done every day. I don't
say I shall not suffer--you know I shall suffer!" His voice broke
suddenly. "Celia, _darling_!"

She was silent for a moment, lyi