you must remember me as you know me now. Do you understand
that, Miss Arsdale? You know me now as I am--as no other human being
knows me. Will you cling to this?"

"You are to me as you are. So you always will be."

She met his eyes unflinchingly, feeling a new strength growing within
her. He went on:

"If we cling to what we ourselves know of our friends--if we cling to
that through thick and thin, nothing that happens to them can matter
much. It is that confidence which lifts our friendships beyond the
reach of the cur snappings of circumstance. So you, whatever you may
hear afterwards, whatever things you find yourself unable to
understand, must hold fast to this week. You must say to yourself,"
his voice grew husky, "you must say this,--'If it had been possible for
him to do so, he would have lived out his life as I wished him to live
it out.'"

As he spoke on, it seemed to him that she, in some subtle way, was
rising superior to him. Instead of losing strength as she stood there
before him, he felt her growing in power. He had been talking to her
as to a child, and now he suddenly found himself confronting a woman.
She was now the dominant personality. When she spoke to him her voice
was firmer and possessed of a new richness.

"I have heard you," she said. "All the things you spoke are true. Why
are you going?"

He hesitated at the direct question.

"Because I must."

"Why must you?"

"I cannot tell you."

She placed a steady hand upon his arm.

"Yes. You must tell me."

"Don't tempt me like that!"

He felt himself weakening. If only he might stand before her with his
mask off. It meant freedom, it meant peace. That was all he
asked--just the privilege of standing stark white before this one woman.

He turned away. The burden was his and he must bear it, if it crushed
his very soul into the clay. Away from those eyes, he might be able to
write some poor explanation. But to put it into cold words would be
only to force upon her the torture of the next few hours. It was
better for her to believe as she now saw him, as she might guess, than
to suffer the ghastly truth and then shiver at the mud idol that was
left.

He moved back a step.

"You must not look at me," he cried. "You must keep your eyes away
from me and--and let me go."

But she followed, pressing him to the wall as they all had done. The
color leaped to her cheeks. Her eyes grew big and tender.

"I do no