, "sooner or later. You
are right--of course. I should not have come back to America. I should
not have believed that I was strong enough to trust myself. Then"--he
looked at her steadily. His words came from his lips one by one, very
slowly. His voice was hardly more than a whisper. "Then, I am--never to
see you--again... Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what that means for me?" he cried. "Do you realise--" he
drew in his breath sharply. "Never to see you again! To lose even the
little that is left to me now. I--I--" He turned away quickly and
walked to a window and stood a moment, his back turned, looking out,
his hands clasped behind him. Then, after a long moment, he faced
about. His manner was quiet again, his voice very low.

"But before I go," he said, "will you answer me, at least, this--it can
do no harm now that I am to leave you--answer me, and I know you will
speak the truth: Are you happy, Laura?"

She closed her eyes.

"You have not the right to know."

"You are not happy," he declared. "I can see it, I know it. If you
were, you would have told me so.... If I promise you," he went on. "If
I promise you to go away now, and never to try to see you again, may I
come once more--to say good-by?"

She shook her head.

"It is so little for you to grant," he pleaded, "and it is so
incalculably much for me to look forward to in the little time that yet
remains. I do not even ask to see you alone. I will not harass you with
any heroics."

"Oh, what good will it do," she cried, wearily, "for you to see me
again? Why will you make me more unhappy than I am? Why did you come
back?"

"Because," he answered, steadily, "because I love you more than"--he
partly raised a clenched fist and let it fall slowly upon the back of
the chair, "more than any other consideration in the world."

"Don't!" she cried. "You must not. Never, never say that to me again.
Will you go--please?"

"Oh, if I had not gone from you four years ago!" he cried. "If I had
only stayed then! Not a day of my life since that I have not regretted
it. You could have loved me then. I know it, I know it, and, God
forgive me, but I know you could love me now--"

"Will you go?" she cried.

"I dare you to say you could not," he flashed out

Laura shut her eyes and put her hands over her ears. "I could not, I
could not," she murmured, monotonously, over and over again. "I could
not, I could not."

She heard him start suddenly, and opened h