ed easy when she had spoken of it to Alice, but now in
the face of this man's love, in the face of her own self-realization,
it seemed beyond her strength. "Listen to me, and you will see for
yourself that I must not marry you--yet. I believed that I loved
Leslie Grey truly, fondly. As I look back now I am sure I did. I was
never happy but when I was with him. He seemed so strong and resolute.
I never had a moment in which to doubt myself. Then, when he died, the
agony I suffered was something too dreadful to contemplate. As he lay
on the little bed with his life slowly ebbing, and I watched him dying
by inches, I was filled with such horror and despair that I thought
surely I should go mad. Then it dawned on me that he had been
murdered, and my anguish turned to a dreadful feeling of rage and
longing to avenge him. Never in my life did I experience such terrible
passion as at that moment. I believe at the time I really was mad. The
one thought in my mind was, 'Who--who has done this thing?' Then
Leslie died, and in his death agony he spoke and told me, as well as
his poor gasping faculties could tell me, what had happened. His words
were unintelligible to every one except me. And those words formed a
clue to the assassin's identity. By his bedside I swore to avenge him.
Never would I rest until my oath was carried out. As you know, after
that I became ill and went away. And, oh, the shame of it, during
those months of rest and illness I forgot Leslie Grey, I forgot my
vow. I forgot everything that claimed my duty. Think of it--the shame,
the shallow heartlessness, the fickle nature which is mine. I, who had
loved him as I believed no girl had ever loved, had forgotten him as
though he had never come into my life."

Iredale nodded comprehensively as the girl paused.

"Then you came into my life," Prudence went on. Her face was turned
towards the window now, outside of which she saw the tongues of
lightning playing across the sky. "Time went on, and slowly something
crept into my heart which made me realize my shortcomings. Gradually
my conduct was revealed to me in its true colours, and I saw myself as
I really was--a heartless, worthless creature, so despicable, even to
myself, as to make me shudder when I contemplated the future. Let me
be honest now, at least. I knew that I loved you, George, that
is"--bitterly--"as far as I was capable of love; but what sort of
affection was mine to give to anybody? I could not tru