herself. With something of this showing in his face, he came eagerly
toward her.

"Vera!" he exclaimed. In the word there was delight, wonder, tenderness;
but if the girl recognized this she concealed her knowledge. Instead,
her eyes looked into his frankly; her manner was that of open
friendliness.

"Mabel tells me you want to talk to me," she said evenly "but I don't
want you to. I have something I want to say to you. I could have written
it, but this"--for an instant the girl paused with her lips pressed
together; when she spoke, her voice carried the firmness and finality
of one delivering a verdict--"but this," she repeated, "is the last time
you shall hear from me, or see me again."

Winthrop gave an exclamation of impatience, of indignation.

"No," returned the girl, "it is quite final. Maybe you will not want to
see me, but--"

Winthrop again sharply interrupted her. His voice was filled with
reproach. "Vera!" he protested.

"Well," said the girl more gently, "I'm glad to think you do, but this
is the last, and before I go, I--".

"Go!" demanded Winthrop roughly. "Where?"

"Before I go," continued the girl, "I want to tell you how much you have
helped me--I want to thank you--".

"You haven't let me thank you," broke in Winthrop, "and, now, you
pretend this is our last meeting. It's absurd!".

"It is our last meeting," replied the girl. Of the two, for the moment,
she was the older, the more contained. "On the contrary," contradicted
the man. He spoke sharply, in a tone he tried to make as determined as
her own. "Our next meeting will be in ten minutes--at my sister's. I
have told her about this afternoon, and about you; and she wants very
much to meet you. She has sent her car for you. It's waiting in front of
the house. Now," he commanded masterfully, "you come with me, and get in
it, and leave all this"--he gave an angry, contemptuous wave of the hand
toward the cabinet--"behind you, as," he added earnestly, "you promised
me you would."

As though closing from sight the possibility he suggested, the girl shut
her eyes quickly, and then opened them again to meet his.

"I can't leave these things behind me," she said quietly.

"I told you so this afternoon. For a moment, you made me think I could,
and I did promise. I didn't need to promise. It's what I've prayed for.
Then, you saw what happened, you saw I was right. Within five minutes
that woman came--"

"That woman had a motive," proteste