l likely," she sighed.

"But a chance is a chance, Girl, dear."

"Oh!" she cried, suddenly. "To think that I have brought you to this!
That what you thought would be a little favor to me has brought you to
death."

She began to sob convulsively.

It was as though for the first time she realized her responsibility for
his life; as though her confidence in her complete understanding of him
had disappeared and he was again a stranger to her--a stranger whom she
had coolly led to the edge of life with her.

"Don't, Girl--don't!" he commanded.

Her self-blame was terrible to him. But she could not check her grief,
and finally, hardly knowing what he did, he put his arm around her and
drew her closer to him. Her tear-wet cheek touched his. She had removed
her hat, and her hair brushed his forehead.

"Girl, Girl!" he whispered, "don't you know?--Don't you understand? If
chance had not kept us together, I would have followed you until I won
you. From the moment I saw you, I have had no thought that was not bound
up with you."

"But think what I have done to you!" she sobbed. "I never realized that
there was this danger. And you--you have your own friends, your
interests. Oh, I----"

"My interests are all here--with you," he answered. "It is I who am to
blame. I should have known what Alcatrante would do."

"You couldn't know. There was no way----"

"I sent you up here to wait for me. Then, when he and I came in, I turned
my back on him, like a blind fool."

"No, no," she protested.

"After all," he said, "it was, perhaps, something that neither you nor I
could foresee. No one is to blame. Isn't that the best view to take of
it?"

Her cheek moved against his as she inclined her head.

"It may be selfish in me," he went on, "but I can't feel unhappy--now."

Her sobs had ceased, and she buried her face in his shoulder.

"I love you, Girl," he said, brokenly. "I don't expect you to care so
much for me--yet. But I must tell you what I feel. There isn't--there
isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, Girl--and be happy doing it."

She did not speak, and for a long time they sat in silence. Many emotions
were racing through him. His happiness was almost a pain, for it came to
him in this extremity when there was no hope ahead. She had not yielded
herself, but she had not resisted his embrace; even now her head was on
his shoulder. Indeed, he had given her no chance to confess what she
might feel for him.

Nor wou