s no case for forgiveness."

But she would not accept his indulgence.

"I was horrid," she protested, with a catch in her voice. "Why are you
so patient with me? You never used to be."

He did not answer her. He seemed to regard the question as superfluous.

She drew a little nearer. Her fingers fastened quivering upon his coat.

"Don't be too kind to me, Vivian," she said, her voice trembling.
"It--it isn't good for me."

He took her by the wrists and drew her hands away.

"You want to tell me something," he said. "What is it?"

She glanced upwards, meeting his look with sudden resolution.

"You asked me this afternoon why I was crying," she said. "And I--I lied
to you. You asked me, too, what Mrs. Lockyard said to me. And I lied
again. I will tell you now, if--if you will listen to me."

Caryl was still holding her wrists. There was a hint of sternness in his
attitude.

"Well?" he said quietly. "What did she say?"

"She said"--Doris spoke with an effort--"she said, or rather she hinted,
that there was an old grudge between you and Major Brandon, a matter
with which I was in no way concerned, an affair of many years' standing.
She said that was why you followed him up and--thrashed him that night.
She implied that I didn't count at all. She made me wonder
if--if--"--she was speaking almost inarticulately, with bent head--"if
perhaps it was only to satisfy this ancient grudge that you married me."

Her words went into silence. She could not look him in the face. If he
had not held her wrists so firmly she would have been tempted to turn
and flee. As it was, she could only stand before him in quivering
suspense.

He moved at length, moved suddenly and disconcertingly, freeing one
hand to turn her face quietly upwards. She did not resist him, but she
shrank as she met his eyes. She fancied she had never seen him look so
grim.

"And that was why you were crying?" he asked, deliberately searching her
reluctant eyes.

"That was--one reason," she acknowledged faintly.

"Then there was something more than that?"

"Yes." She laid her hand pleadingly on his arm, and he released her. "I
will tell you," she said tremulously, keeping her face upturned to his.
"At least, I will try. But it's very difficult because--"

She began to falter under his look.

"Because," he said slowly, "you have no confidence in me. That I can
well understand. You married me more or less under compulsion, and when
a wife is no mo