taken?
Can you look me in the eyes, Betty, and say that I am no more to you
than any other man?"

Betty did not attempt to meet his eyes, and her disclaimer was
transparently artificial.

"Oh, of course you are Miles' friend, naturally it is different--but I
can't be engaged to anybody. It's impossible. Please, please believe
that I know what I say!"

"Not unless you tell me the reason why it is impossible. Is there
someone else, Betty? Someone whom you love better than me?"

"No--yes! I don't know if I love him, but I have always felt as if I
belonged to him, and must wait till he came back. You would think me
mad if you knew the whole story. I sometimes think I am mad myself, but
I feel as if I should be betraying a trust if I married another man."

Will Gerard sat very still for a moment. Then: "Tell me about it!" he
said hoarsely. "Tell me! I ought to know. Perhaps I shall
understand."

"I don't understand myself," said Betty sadly. "I have tried not to
care for you, but I do care in spite of trying. When I thought of you
going away, my heart stood still, but the other thing has gone on so
long; it has been part of my life, and even for your sake I can't forget
it. If I could be sure that he was well and happy, and had found
someone else to love him, then to be your wife would be the greatest
happiness in the world; but until I hear, I feel--_bound_! We only met
once. That sounds mad enough, doesn't it? And I know nothing of him
but his Christian name. It was an evening more than six years ago; we
had been at a concert at the Albert Hall, and when we came out there was
a black fog, and I lost Miles, and met this man, who brought me home
instead. He was in great trouble--I found it out from something he
said--in such terrible trouble that he had lost all hope, and made up
his mind to commit suicide. That was the first time that I had ever
been brought face to face with real trouble, and it changed my whole
life. Think of it! I was coming back to my happy home from an
afternoon's pleasure, and he--was going to the river..."

Will Gerard had been sitting listening to her with his head buried in
his hands, but at the sound of that last word he raised his face, and
turned towards her with a sudden, passionate gesture.

"And you came to him like a good angel in the midst of the darkness--
came to him without a face or a name,--just as a girl's sweet voice
bidding him take courage, and sendi