s over--"

"Hugh!"

He shrugged sulkily.

"Hugh, look at me!"

Unwillingly he met her eyes.

"How did you find out?"

He was an inexpert liar. Under the witchery of her eyes, his resource
failed him absolutely. He started to repeat, stammered, fell still, and
then in a breath capitulated.

"Before you were up--I meant to keep this from you--down there on the
beach--I found Drummond."

"Drummond!"

It was a cry of terror. She started back from him, eyes wide, cheeks
whitening.

"I'm sorry.... But I presume you ought to know.... His body ... I buried
it...."

She gave a little smothered cry, and seemed to shrink in upon herself,
burying her face in her hands--an incongruous, huddled shape of grief,
there upon the gray stone wall, set against all the radiant beauty of
the exquisite, sun-gladdened world.

He was patient with her, though the slow-dragging minutes during which
she neither moved nor made any sound brought him inexpressible distress,
and he seemed to age visibly, his face, settling in iron lines, gray
with suffering.

At length a moan--rather, a wail--came from the stricken figure beside
him:

"Ah, the pity of it! the pity of it!... What have I done that this
should come to me!"

He ventured to touch her hand in gentle sympathy.

"Mary," he said, and hesitated with a little wonder, remembering that
this was the first time he had ever called her by that name--"Mary, did
you care for him so much?"

She sat, mute, her face averted and hidden.

"I'd give everything if I could have mended matters. I was fond of
Drummond--poor soul! If he'd only been frank with me from the start, all
this could have been avoided. As soon as I knew--that night when I
recognized you on the stage--I went at once to you to say I would clear
out--not stand in the way of your happiness. I would have said as much
to him, but he gave me no chance."

"Don't blame him," she said softly. "He wasn't responsible."

"I know."

"How long have you known?" She swung suddenly to face him.

"For some time--definitely, for two or three days. He tried twice to
murder me. The first time he must have thought he'd done it.... Then he
tried again, the night before you were carried off. Ember suspected,
watched for him, and caught him. He took him away, meaning to put him in
a sanitarium. I don't understand how he got away--from Ember. It worries
me--on Ember's account. I hope nothing has happened to him."

"Oh, I hope not!"