urs start of them, at least."

She leaned toward him earnestly.

"I am going to be frank with you now," she said. "And perhaps it is
not yet too late. I _did_ intend telling you everything when I
telephoned you, but, as I have said, the impulse came to hide it,
instead!"

"It was fear," said Ashton-Kirk, "and was, perhaps, perfectly natural
under the circumstances."

"When I left you two mornings ago," said Miss Vale, "I felt easier in
my mind than I had in months before. From what I had heard of you, I
felt sure that the little problem which I had set you would prove
absurdly simple. This feeling clung to me all day; I was light and
happy, and astonished my aunt, Mrs. Page, by consenting to go with
her to Mrs. Barron's that night, a thing that I had been refusing to
do for a long time.

"Late in the afternoon, Allan--Mr. Morris--came. As soon as I saw him
I knew that something had happened or was about to happen. There was
no color in his face; his eyes had a feverish glitter, his voice was
high pitched and excited. But I did not let him see that I noticed
this. I talked to him quietly about a score of things; and by a most
circuitous route approached the matter that interested me most--our
marriage.

"To my surprise he plunged into the subject with the greatest
eagerness. Before that, as I have told you, he always did his best to
avoid it; the least mention of it seemed to sadden him, to cause him
pain. But now he discussed it excitedly; apparently it was no longer a
dim, far-off thing, but one which he saw very clearly. As you may
imagine, I was both astonished and delighted. But this was only at
first. In a little while I noticed something in his tone, in his
manner, in his feverish eyes that I did not like."

She paused for a moment; Ashton-Kirk clasped his knee with both hands
and regarded her with interest.

"It was a sort of subdued fierceness," continued Miss Vale--"as though
he were setting his face against some invisible force and defying it.
When he mentioned our happiness that was to be, I could see his hands
close tightly, I could read menace in the set of his jaw. As he was
going, he said to me:

"'There has been something--a something that you've never been able to
understand--keeping us apart. But it is about at an end. Human nature
endures a great deal, sometimes, but it's endurance does not last
forever. To-night, my dear, puts an end to my endurance. I am going to
show what I should have