g waiting. My only fear is
that when she gets back to a normal condition she may realise that what
she feels is more gratitude and affection than love."

"I don't think so, and you wouldn't either if you saw them together. I
detest lovers as a rule, they are so dull and self-engrossed; but it is
pretty to watch Vere and Jim. She is so saucy and domineering, and he
is so blissfully happy to be bullied. Oh, yes, I am sure it is all
right! I am sure they will be happy."

"God grant it!" he said solemnly. "Everything depends upon the truth of
their feelings for each other. If that is right, nothing else will have
power to hurt them seriously. If it is not--" He broke off, looking so
serious that I felt frightened, and said nervously:

"But, surely--even at the worst, gratitude and affection would be a good
foundation!"

"For everything else, but not for marriage. It is a ghastly mistake to
imagine that they can ever take the place of love. Never fall into that
error, Babs, however much you may be tempted. Never let any impulse of
gratitude or pity induce you to promise to marry a man if you have no
warmer feeling. It would be the most cruel thing you could do, not only
for yourself, but for him!"

"I have fallen into it once already, but he would not have me," I said,
recalling my hasty speech to Wallace Forbes, and at that Will's face lit
up with sudden animation, and he cried eagerly:

"Was that the explanation? I guessed, of course, that something had
happened while you were away last autumn. You remember I was calling on
your sister at the time of your unexpected return, and you have never
been quite the same since? Whatever happened then has changed you from
a girl into a woman."

I sighed, as I always did when I recalled that miserable incident.

"I am glad you think so. I want to be changed. Please don't think me
the heroine of an interesting romance. I was a selfish wretch, and
amused myself by flirting without thinking of anything but my own
amusement. I was very down on my luck just then, and had got it into my
head that no one cared for me, and when--he--_did_, it cheered and
soothed my feelings, so I let things drift until it was too late. Do
you despise me altogether, or can you understand that, bad as it was, it
wasn't so hopelessly bad as it sounds?"

"I understand better than you think, perhaps. And you repented in
sackcloth and ashes, and were ready to make a sacrifice of your