e what I want to hear, we can still have
many years--to forget Simon and think only of our own happiness--"

"Oh, stop! Stop!" She flung out a hand imploringly and drew back from
him, her face ashen. "Oh, what a fool I've been--what a wicked little
fool! I saw this coming--I never should have let it happen--oh, I
should have hit you over the head--k-killed you, too!--anything but let
this go on! But I d-didn't have the s-trength either! I wanted my bit
of happiness--I wanted to be cared for like--like that by some
one--by--by _you_ above all! And now--and now--!" She broke off on a
sob.

"But, Ocky! What is it, dear? We have the future--"

"That's just what we haven't got!" she gasped. "Oh, don't you
understand? Haven't you guessed why I have done all these things, why
I was able to play Destiny without fear of the consequences to myself,
why I called you in to-night to hear my confession?" She drew a
sobbing breath, "I told you I was very ill. Peter, I--I'm _dying_!"

Softly though it was spoken, the word crashed upon his ears like a
thunderclap. He sprang to his feet, shaken and bewildered.

"Ocky! What are you saying? Are you telling me the truth? What is
the matter with you?"

"Yes. It's the truth. Sit down--please! Don't get silly ideas into
your head about a doctor. Give me credit for some sense!" She managed
to smile, and gallantly pitched her voice to a note of lightness. "As
for what's the matter--well, we needn't wander off into pathology, need
we? I think we'll dispense with an ante-post-mortem, if there is such
an animal! I contrived to tie some of my little innards into bowknots
once when I was h-hunting hippopotamusses in the Himalayas, I guess.

"Months afterwards, I came down with a pain--a pain such as I could not
have believed a human being could experience and survive, I went to a
doctor in Paris, and he told me there was no hope. A few months later
I had a second attack. When I was able to travel, I went to a new man
in Rome. He said the next attack would be the--last.

"Then I came home. I wanted to see Lucy again, and if this stupid
business of dying had to be gone through I wanted to do it here in this
old house. I wanted a few weeks or months of peace and quiet and
h-happiness." Her voice broke, then steadied again. "Golly--what a
fizzle!" She shivered. "This afternoon I got my--notice! How I
wished you were here! I came up to my room, burned that diar