you guess? Don't--don't look at me
like that and smile. It is not like you to be so--so hard."

"We men are hard or soft as you women make us, Luce," he said quietly.
"Remember that I have been through the mill. I was not hard or
cruel--once."

It was an unwise thing to say. Never, if you have done with a woman, or
she has done with you, talk sentiment, says Rousseau. It was unwise, for
it let Luce in.

"I know! Yes, it was all my fault. Drake, do you think I don't know
that? Do you think that I don't tell myself so every hour of the day,
every hour at night, when I lay awake thinking of--of the past?"

"The past is buried, Luce," he said, with a short laugh. "Don't let us
dig it up again. After all, you acted wisely----"

"No; I acted like a fool!" she broke in; and she meant it. "If I had
only listened to the cry of my own heart--if I had only refused to obey
father, and--and stuck to you! But, Drake, though you think me
heartless, and--and sneer----"

"I didn't mean to sneer, Luce," he said. "Forgive me if I did so
unintentionally. I quite understood your difficulty, and, as I told you
the day we parted, I--well, I made allowances for you. You did what most
women of our set would have done."

"Would they? But perhaps they really are heartless, while I----Drake,
you can't tell what I have suffered; how--how terribly I have missed
you! I--yes, I will tell you the truth. Do you know, Drake, that I had
made a vow that whenever we met, whether it was soon, or not for years,
I would tell you all. Yes--though, like a man, you should despise me for
it!"

"I'm not likely to despise you for it, Luce," he said. As he spoke, Lady
Chesney came out onto the terrace. She looked up and down, saw the two
figures standing together, and, with a smile, returned to the house.

"No; you are too generous for that, Drake; even if I--I confess that I
have not spent one happy--oh, the word is a mockery!--that I have been
wretched since the hour I--I left you."

His face grew grave, almost stern.

"I'm sorry," he said simply. "Candidly, I didn't think----"

"No, I know! You thought that I only cared for you because----You told
me that I was heartless and mercenary, you remember, Drake. But, ah; it
wasn't true! Yes, I've been brought up at a bad school. I've been taught
that it's a sacred duty for every girl, as poor as I am, to make a good
match; and I thought--see how frank I am!--that I could part from you,
oh, not easily, but