o; I don't mean what you think--or, if I do,
I must not. Jack, I have promised, don't you see? And when I thought
that perhaps he didn't care so much, and asked him--oh, I told you how
beautifully he answered me, I will never hurt him so, never!"

"It is disgusting, it is horrible; he is twenty-five years older than
you--he might be your father!" stormed the voice.

"I--I never cared for young people before!"

Could this be Lady, this shy, faltering girl? Moved by an overmastering
impulse, the man behind the summer-house turned his head and looked
through the broken wall.

Lady Jane was blushing and paling in quick succession: the waves of red
flooded over her moved face and receded like the tide at turn. Her eyes
were piteous; her hair fell low over her forehead; she looked incredibly
young.

"Of course," said the young man bitterly, "it is a good match--a fine
match, You will have a beautiful home and everything you want."

She put out her hands appealingly. "Oh, Jack, how can you hurt me so?
You know I would live with you in a garret--on the plains--"

"Then do it."

"I shall never hurt a person so terribly to whom I have freely given my
word," she said, with a touch of her old-time decision.

Colonel Driscoll felt his blood sweeping through his veins like wine. He
was far too excited for finesse, too eager--and he had been so willing
to wait, once!--for the next sweet moment when this almost tragedy
should be resolved into its elements. He strode out into the open space
in front of the little house.

"My dear young people," he said, as they stared at him in absolute
silence, "I am, I am--" He had intended to carry the matter off
jocularly, but the sight of the girl's tear-stained face and the emotion
of the minutes before had softened and awed him. His eyes seemed yet to
hold those gray ones; he felt strangely the pressure of that soft body
against his.

"Ah, my dear," he said gently, "could you not believe me when I told you
that my one wish was to make you happy as long as I lived? Happiness is
not built on mistakes, and you must forgive us if we do not always allow
youth to monopolize them.

"She has always been like a dear child to me, Mr. Morris"--he turned to
the other man--"and you would never wish me to change my regard for her,
could you know it!

"Go with him, Lady dear, and forgive me if I have ever pained
you--believe me, I am very happy to-night."

He raised her softly as she knelt bef