ving with."

A brutal way to tell her, no doubt, but admirably courageous. For he was
quivering with dread when he said it--the courage of the man who faces
a cannon. And here, where a less-poised woman would have broken into
speech, Anita took the refuge of her kind and was silent. Stewart
watched her as best he could in the darkness, trying to gather further
courage to go on. He could not see her face, but her fingers, touching
the edge of the chair, quivered.

"May I tell you the rest?"

"I don't think I want to hear it."

"Are you going to condemn me unheard?"

"There isn't anything you can say against the fact?"

But there was much to say, and sitting there in the darkness he made
his plea. He made no attempt to put his case. He told what had happened
simply; he told of his loneliness and discomfort. And he emphasized the
lack of sentiment that prompted the arrangement.

Anita spoke then for the first time: "And when you tried to terminate it
she attempted to kill you!"

"I was acting the beast. I brought her up here, and then neglected her
for you."

"Then it was hardly only a business arrangement for her."

"It was at first. I never dreamed of any thing else. I swear that,
Anita. But lately, in the last month or two, she--I suppose I should
have seen that she--"

"That she had fallen in love with you. How old is she?"

"Nineteen."

A sudden memory came to Anita, of a slim young girl, who had watched her
with wide, almost childish eyes.

"Then it was she who was in the compartment with you on the train coming
up?"

"Yes."

"Where is she now?"

"In Vienna. I have not heard from her. Byrne, the chap who came up
to see me after the--after the accident, sent her away. I think he's
looking after her. I haven't heard from him."

"Why did you tell me all this?"

"Because I love you, Anita. I want you to marry me."

"What! After that?"

"That, or something similar, is in many men's lives. They don't tell it,
that's the difference. I 'm not taking any credit for telling you this.
I'm ashamed to the bottom of my soul, and when I look at your bandaged
arm I'm suicidal. Peter Byrne urged me to tell you. He said I couldn't
get away with it; some time or other it would come out. Then he said
something else. He said you'd probably understand, and that if you
married me it was better to start with a clean slate."

No love, no passion in the interview now. A clear statement of fact, an
offer--his pas