her to try, even now, to save the precious
letter, she thrust her hand almost within the bars that the fire might
destroy the writing the more completely.

But her own haste was her undoing. The loose chiffon sleeve she wore
brushed against the glowing coals as she pushed the letter frantically
between the bars; and a bright tongue of flame shot suddenly up her arm
and ignited the masses of filmy lace which disguised the thinness of her
once softly-rounded bosom.

There was a sharp cry from Herrick, a shriek of terror from Eva; and
then, as Herrick sprang aside to snatch up the heavy travelling-coat
which would most effectually beat out the flames, Eva rushed frenziedly
to the door, screaming at the top of her voice.

Again and again he tried to fling the coat round her burning form; but
she had completely lost her head, and several valuable seconds were
wasted before he caught her finally and wrapped her completely round in
the thick, heavy folds of his big coat.

Quite suddenly he felt her collapse in his grasp; and when, having
extinguished the flames, he unwrapped the coat from her slender figure,
Herrick had a horrible conviction that he held a dead woman in his
arms....

She was still alive, however, though terribly burned about the arms and
body. For nearly a week she lay between life and death, a piteous little
figure swathed in bandages.

By some miraculous chance, although her golden curls were singed and
blackened, her face had escaped injury, and as he sat by her side in the
darkened room, Herrick could trace in the pale and suffering features
the face of the bonny Irish girl who had won his heart so completely in
those far-off days of an Irish spring.

For seven days she lay there, half-conscious at times, moaning piteously
for hours together, though for the most part under the merciful
influence of the morphia which lulled her agony; and in that terrible
week Herrick took up afresh the burden of his marriage and determined
that if Eva recovered he would give up his whole life to her service. He
would endeavour to win her back to a saner, sweeter frame of mind, to
make up to her by his unswerving patience and devotion for the misery
she had endured; and he would relinquish, once for all, the hopeless
mental attitude which had seemed to say that a life spent together must
be impossible for both of them.

After all, she was pathetically young and frail. She had sinned, but she
had paid, was paying n