s, at any rate--"

"Then _you_ have it. Give it to me, please," she commanded.

He stepped to the fire-place, unable to meet her eye. "You hurried
me," he muttered: "there was not time."

For a moment she spread out both hands as one groping in the dark:
then the veil fell from her eyes and she saw. The truth spoke to her
senses first--in the sordid disarray of breakfast, in the fusty smell
of the room with its soiled curtains, its fly-blown mirror, its
outlook on the blank court. A whiff of air crept in at the open
window--flat, with a scullery odour which sickened her soul. In her
ears rang the laugh of the woman in the passage.

"What have you done? What have you done to me?"

She crouched, shivering, like some beautiful wild creature entrapped.
He faced her again. Her eyes were on his, but fastened there now by
a shrinking terror.

"Hetty!"

She put up a hand and turned her face to the wall, as if to shut out
him and the light. He stepped to her, caught her by the wrist and
forced her round towards him. At the first touch he felt her wince.
So will you see a young she-panther wince and cower from her tamer's
whip.

Yet, although she shuddered, she could not drag her hand away.
He was her tamer now: and as he spoke soothingly and she grew
quieter, a new faith awoke in her, yet a faith as old as woman; the
false imperishable faith that by giving all she binds a man as he has
bound her.

With a cry she let her brow sink till it touched his breast.
Then, straightening herself, she gripped him by both shoulders and
stared close into his eyes--clinging to him as she had clung that
evening on the frozen canal, but with a face how different!

"But you mean no harm? You told me a falsehood"--here he blinked,
but she went on, her eyes devouring his--"but you told it in
kindness? Say you mean no harm to me--you will get this licence
soon. How soon? Do not be angry--ah, see how I humble myself to
you! You mean honestly: yes, yes, but say it! how soon?"

"Hetty, I'll be honest with you. One cannot get a licence in a day."

"And I will be patient--so patient! Only we must leave this horrible
house: you must find me a lodging where I can be alone."

"Why, what's the matter with this house?" He tried a laugh, and the
result betrayed him.

Her body stiffened again. "When did you apply for the licence?" she
demanded. "How long since?"

He tried to shuffle. "But answer me!" she insisted, thrusti