y Loring looked uneasy. "I promised my husband to keep it a secret
from everybody," she said.

"It is nothing degrading, Adelaide--I am sure of that."

"And you are right, my dear. I can understand that he has surprised and
disappointed you; but, if you knew his motives--" she stopped and looked
earnestly at Stella. "They say," she went on, "the love that lasts
longest is the love of slowest growth. This feeling of yours for Romayne
is of sudden growth. Are you very sure that your whole heart is given to
a man of whom you know little?"

"I know that I love him," said Stella simply.

"Even though he doesn't seem as yet to love you?" Lady Loring asked.

"All the more _because_ he doesn't. I should be ashamed to make
the confession to any one but you. It is useless to say any more.
Good-night."

Lady Loring allowed her to get as far as the door, and then suddenly
called her back. Stella returned unwillingly and wearily. "My head aches
and my heart aches," she said. "Let me go away to my bed."

"I don't like you to go away, wronging Romayne perhaps in your
thoughts," said Lady Loring. "And, more than that, for the sake of your
own happiness, you ought to judge for yourself if this devoted love of
yours may ever hope to win its reward. It is time, and more than time,
that you should decide whether it is good for you to see Romayne again.
Have you courage enough to do that?"

"Yes--if I am convinced that it ought to be done."

"Nothing would make me so happy," Lady Loring resumed, "as to know
that you were one day, my dear, to be his wife. But I am not a prudent
person--I can never look, as you can, to consequences. You won't betray
me, Stella? If I am doing wrong in telling a secret which has been
trusted to me, it is my fondness for you that misleads me. Sit down
again. You shall know what the misery of Romayne's life really is."

With those words, she told the terrible story of the duel, and of all
that had followed it.

"It is for you to say," she concluded, "whether Romayne is right. Can
any woman hope to release him from the torment that he suffers, with
nothing to help her but love? Determine for yourself."

Stella answered instantly.

"I determine to be his wife!"

With the same pure enthusiasm, Penrose had declared that he too devoted
himself to the deliverance of Romayne. The loving woman was not more
resolved to give her whole life to him, than the fanatical man was
resolved to convert him. On the