was but a part she was playing
when she touched my heart until I yielded and sinned. I have only learned
that recently, within a few days, and from words written by her own hand
to another. I will tell you about it all sometime. But I want to confess
to you this wrong I have done, and to let you know that I went away from
her that day and have never seen her since. She had said she was without
money, and I left her all I had with me. I know now that that too was
unwise,--perhaps wrong. I feel that all this was a sin against you. I would
like you to forgive me if you can, and I want you to know that this other
woman who was the cause of our coming together, and yet has separated us
ever since we have been together, is no longer anything to me. Even if she
and I were both free as we were when we first met, we could never be
anything but strangers. Can you forgive me now, Marcia, and can you ever
trust me after what I have told you?"

Marcia looked into his eyes, and loved him but the more for his
confession. She felt she could forgive him anything, and her whole soul in
her countenance answered with her voice, as she said: "I can." It made
David think of their wedding day, and suddenly it came over him with a
thrill that this sweet womanly woman belonged to him. He marvelled at her
sweet forgiveness. The joy of it surprised him beyond measure.

"You have had some sad experiences yourself. Will you tell me now all
about it?" He asked the question wistfully still holding her hands in a
firm close grasp, and she let them lie nestling there feeling safe as
birds in the nest.

"Why, how did you know?" questioned Marcia, her whole face flooded with
rosy light for joy at his kind ways and relief that she did not have to
open the story.

"Oh, a little bird, or a guardian angel whispered the tale," he said
pleasantly. "Come into the room where we can be sure no Hannah Heaths will
trouble us," and he drew her into the library and seated her beside him on
the sofa.

"But, indeed, Marcia," and his face sobered, "it is no light matter to me,
what has happened to you. I have been in an agony all the way home lest I
might not find you safe and well after having escaped so terrible a
danger."

He drew the whole story from her bit by bit, tenderly questioning her, his
face blazing with righteous wrath, and darkening with his wider knowledge
as she told on to the end, and showed him plainly the black heart of the
villain who had da