"Oh! he had gone booming ahead like a rocket. The tide turned a bit too
late for me--but it carried him to a safe harbour. In a generous and
highly moral way he stood ready to repay me--but conditions had changed;
I must accept certain terms."

"The--the--girl?"

"She'd married my brother. She it was who changed the conditions, you
see. It had been a noble sacrifice for her to marry into _such_ a
family--so, of course, due consideration must be shown her. Would I live
abroad on an ample allowance?"

Joyce flinched before the tone. Gaston stood up and flung his arms out.
"No! by God, I would not live abroad. I chose my own place of hiding. He
paid, though--I saw to that--he named no allowance, it was I; but he
paid and paid and paid all that _I_ thought he should. He bought me off
at my price--not his. I left all in the hands of the only friend I had
on earth--I never wanted to hear of the others again until I was ready
to go back--and I haven't. I wanted time to think out my way. I wanted
strength to go back, take my name and fortune, ask nothing of the
world--but a chance to defy it. I got as far as that--" He dropped back
into the chair and bowed his head.

The hands of the clock were past midnight, the fire was nothing but
glowing embers; a chill was creeping through the room. Presently Gaston
was aware of a nearness--not merely bodily, but spiritually. He looked
up. He had forgotten Joyce and his thought of comfort in knowing that
she would stand by him. To see her close now, to gaze up into her
glorious face was like an awakening from a hideous dream to a safe
reality.

"You got as far as that," she said in the saddest, softest tone that a
woman's voice ever held; "and then I came into your life. Oh! how hard
you tried to set me aside with Jude--but again and again I returned
to--hold you back."

"Why, Joyce, what is the matter?"

A paralyzing fear drove anguish before it. Gaston strove to recall
passion, but that, too, had deserted. He and Joyce were standing in a
barren place alone--nothing behind, nothing before!

"Can't you see what is the matter?"

The coquetry had left the girl, she stood fair, cold and passive like
some wonderful goddess.

"Don't you think I see it all now?

"When I came out of that room I was a--bad woman! You were mistaken, I
never understood before--about us!

"You see when--when I came to you that night--after Jude--" she
struggled with her trembling--"I did not know s