t! She was free! She
was free! She flung out the hand that once had worn those rubies, and,
resisting wildly, broke away from the spell that the words her father
had written had woven afresh for her.

It might be true that Love conquered all things--he had believed
it--but ah, what had this uncanny force to do with Love? Love was a
pure, a holy thing, the bond imperishable--the Eternal Flame at which
all the little torches of the world are lighted.

Moreover, there was no fear in Love, and she--she was sick with fear
whenever she encountered that haunting phantom of memory.

With a start she awoke to the fact that she was not alone. Blake
Grange had taken her out-flung hand, and was speaking to her softly,
soothingly.

"Don't grieve so awfully, Miss Roscoe," he urged, a slight break in
his own voice. "You're not left friendless. I know how it is. I've
felt like it myself. But it gets better afterwards."

Muriel suffered him with a dawning sense of comfort. It surprised her
to see tears in his eyes. She wondered vaguely if they were for her.

"Yes," she said, after a pause. "It does get better, I know, in a way.
Or at least one gets used to an empty heart. One gets to leave off
listening for what one will never, never hear any more."

"Never is a dreary word," said Grange.

She bent her head silently, and again his heart overflowed with pity
for her. He looked down at the hand that lay so passively in his.

"I hope you will always think of me as a friend," he said.

She looked up at him a quick gleam of gratitude in her eyes. "Thank
you," she said. "Yes, always."

He still held her hand. "You know," he said, blundering awkwardly, "I
always blamed myself that--that I wasn't the one to be with you when
you escaped from Wara. I might have been. But I--I wasn't prepared to
pay the possible price."

She was still looking at him with those aloof, tragic eyes of
hers. "I don't quite understand," she said, "I never did
understand--exactly--why Nick was chosen to protect me. I always
wished it had been you."

"It ought to have been," Grange said, with feeling. "It should have
been. I blame myself. But Nick is a better fighter than I. He keeps
his head. Moreover, he's a savage in some respects. I wasn't savage
enough."

He smiled with a hint of apology.

Muriel repressed a shudder at his words. "I don't understand," she
said again.

He hesitated. "It's a difficult thing to explain to you," he said
reluctantly