you once knew. I see life with a wider
vision. I know what it is to be hungry; I know, too, what it is to
earn the bread that has kept me alive. I came home to look after Uncle
George. When I go back I want to take him with me. I won't count the
years nor all the suffering I have gone through if I can pay him back
what I owe him. He stood by me when everybody else deserted me."

She winced a little at the thrust, as if he had touched some sore spot,
sending a shiver of pain through her frame, but she did not defend
herself.

"You mustn't take him away, Harry--leave Uncle George to me," not as if
she demanded it--more as if she was stating a fact.

"Why not? He will be another man out in Brazil--and he can live there
like a gentleman on what he will have left--so Pawson thinks."

"Because I love him dearly--and when he is gone I have nobody left," she
answered in a hopeless tone.

Harry hesitated, then he asked: "And so what Uncle George told me about
Mr. Willits is true?"

Kate looked at him furtively--as if afraid to read his thoughts and for
reply bowed her head in assent.

"Didn't he love you enough?" There was a certain reproach in his tone,
as if no one could love this woman enough to satisfy her.

"Yes."

"What was the matter then? Was it--" He stopped--his eagerness had
led him onto dangerous, if not discourteous, grounds. "No, you needn't
answer--forgive me for asking--I had no right. I am not myself, Kate--I
didn't mean to--"

"Yes, I'll tell you. I told Uncle George. I didn't like him well
enough--that's all." All this time she was looking him calmly in the
face. If she had done anything to be ashamed of she did not intend to
conceal it from her former lover.

"And will Uncle George take his place now that he's gone? Do you ever
know your own heart, Kate?" There was no bitterness in his question.
Her frankness had disarmed him of that. It was more in the nature of an
inquiry, as if he was probing for something on which he could build a
hope.

For a brief instant she made no answer; then she said slowly and with a
certain positiveness:

"If I had I would have saved myself and you a great deal of misery."

"And Langdon Willits?"

"No, he cannot complain--he does not--I promised him nothing. But I have
been so beaten about, and I have tried so hard to do right; and it has
all crumbled to pieces. As for you and me, Harry, let us both forget
that we have ever had any differences. I can't bear t