e room, and, reaching her, bent to kiss her; then, as
she clung closely to him, he sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I'm sorry Hyde annoyed you," he said.

She leaned her head against him, and was silent.

"It'll be a good thing for you when you're married," Ronnie went on
presently. "Baring will take better care of you than I do."

Something in his tone went straight to her heart. Her clinging arms
tightened, but still she was silent. For what he said was unanswerable.

When he spoke again, she felt it was with an effort.

"Baring came round to-night to see you. I went out and spoke to him. I
told him you had gone to bed, and so he didn't come in. I was glad he
didn't. Hyde was there, and they don't hit it particularly well. In
fact--" he hesitated. "I would rather he didn't know Hyde was here.
Baring's a good chap--the best in the world. He's done no end for me;
more than I can ever tell you. But he's awfully hard in some ways. I
can't tell him everything. He doesn't always understand."

Again there sounded in his voice that faint, wistful note that so smote
upon Hope's heart. She drew nearer to him, her cheek against his
shoulder.

"Oh, Ronnie," she said, and her voice quivered passionately, "never
think that of me, dear! Never think that I can't understand!"

He kissed her forehead.

"Bless you, old girl!" he whispered huskily.

"My marriage will make no difference--no difference," she insisted. "You
and I will still be to each other what we have always been. There will
be the same trust between us, the same confidence. Rather than lose
that, I will never marry at all!"

She spoke with vehemence, but Ronnie was not carried away by it.

"Baring will have the right to know all your secrets," he said gloomily.

"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Hope impulsively. "He would never expect that.
He knows that we are twins, and there is no tie in the world that is
quite like that."

Ronnie was silent, but she felt that it was not the silence of
acquiescence. She took him by the shoulders and made him face her.

"Ronnie," she said very earnestly, "if you will only tell me things, and
let me help you where I can, I swear to you--I swear to you most
solemnly--that I will never betray your confidence to Monty, or to any
one else: I know that he would never ask it of me; but even if he
did--even if he did--I would not do it." She spoke so steadfastly, so
loyally, that he was strongly moved. He thrust his arm boyishly rou