ned to accomplish
this. You spoke of logic and judgment when we talked of it before, but
these are not enough. Marian is a wonderful woman. She believes that
this marriage will be for our happiness, but I tell you, Huntington, it
would be a tragedy for us both. I have never had but one woman in my
heart, and any effort to dethrone that image would produce a condition
for which I cannot hold myself responsible. That is what I fear, and you
must help me."

"Of course I'll help you, my dear fellow," Huntington reassured him,
"but are you not exaggerating Mrs. Thatcher's attitude? I can't believe
that she will proceed further when she knows how you really feel."

Hamlen shook his head. "You have heard of men who lost their reason by
being accidentally locked in a tomb overnight--think what it has meant
to me to live with the specters of the dead for twenty years! As I look
back, I wonder that I've held together at all! I'm not rational even
now,--I know that; but I'm improving every day. What you have looked
upon as an obsession, an eccentricity, has been a condition over which I
have had no control, but through you I have been able to partially
extricate myself. Mrs. Thatcher stirred the dead embers when she found
me in Bermuda, and beneath them lay the smoldering flames which had
slowly consumed my life. That I was able to hold them in check there
gave me courage to accept your point of view, and I know that I have
gained strength during these weeks I have spent with you."

"You are stronger in every way," Huntington said with decision. "If you
were able to hold yourself in check then, you should now feel doubly
safe."

"Perhaps," Hamlen admitted doubtfully; "that is why I don't follow my
strong impulse to let you put me up at the Club. I want to test myself
still further. Whenever Marian Thatcher's name is mentioned I feel such
a confusion of emotions that I realize how far I am yet from being my
own master. I must either conquer or else return to the old life."

"I'll stand by you--of course I will!" Huntington laughed, hoping to
lessen Hamlen's apprehension by treating the subject lightly. "Keep the
specters of the past back among the dead where they belong; don't let
them stalk in your present in which you are just beginning to find what
life really is. Mrs. Thatcher is a beautiful woman of flesh and blood
and not an avenging Nemesis!"

"My God, Huntington! can't I make even you understand!" Hamlen cried
out. "