d before, something that
in spite of her utmost effort made her feel curiously uneasy, even
apprehensive. She had always known that there was a certain uncanny
strength about Nick, but to feel the whole weight of it directed
against her was a new experience.

"What have you chosen?" he repeated relentlessly.

And reluctantly, more than half against her will, she told him. "I am
going to the man I love."

She was prepared for some violent outburst upon her words, but
none came. Nick heard her in silence, standing straight before her,
watching her, she felt, with an almost brutal intentness, though his
eyes never for an instant met her own.

"Then," he said suddenly at length, and quick though they were,
it seemed to her that the words fell with something of the awful
precision of a death-sentence, "God help you both; for you are going
to destroy him and yourself too."

Daisy made a sharp gesture; it was almost one of shrinking. And at
once he turned from her and fell to pacing the little room, up and
down, up and down incessantly, like an animal in a cage. It was
useless to attempt to dismiss him, for she saw that he would not go.
She moved quietly to a chair and sat down to wait.

Abruptly at last he stopped, halting in front of her. "Daisy,"--he
began, and broke off short, seeming to battle with himself.

She looked up in surprise. It was so utterly unlike Nick to relinquish
his self-command at a critical juncture. The next moment he amazed her
still further. He dropped suddenly down on his knees and gripped her
clasped hands fast.

"Daisy," he said again, and this time words came, jerky and
passionate, "this is my doing. I've driven you to it. If I hadn't
interfered with Grange, you would never have thought of it."

She sat without moving, but the hasty utterance had its effect upon
her. Some of the rigidity went out of her attitude. "My dear Nick,"
she said, "what is the good of saying that?"

"Isn't it true?" he persisted.

She hesitated, unwilling to wound him.

"You know it is true," he declared with vehemence. "If I had let him
alone, he would have married Muriel, and this thing would never have
happened. God knows I did what was right, but if it doesn't turn out
right, I'm done for. I never believed in eternal damnation before, but
if this thing comes to pass it will be hell-fire for me for as long as
I live. For I shall never believe in God again."

He swung away from her as though in bodily to