se she had suffered. But she was young, tingling with youth, and
her slate was clean, notwithstanding the fool game that she had played,
and she would keep it clean, if she had to fight her way out.

She took up her stand behind the table, alert and watchful.

"I don't get you when you go in for melodrama," she said. "I much
prefer your usual way of talking. Translate for me." She spoke
scornfully because hitherto she had been able to turn him off by scorn.

But it didn't work this time. It was not anger that came into his eyes,
only an unexpected and disconcerting reproach. He made no attempt to go
near her. He looked extraordinarily patient and gentle. She had never
seen him like this before. "Don't stand there," he said. "Come and sit
down and let's go into this sensibly, like people who have emerged from
stupidity. In any case you are not going back to Easthampton to-night."

She began to be frightened. "Not going back to Easthampton?"

"No, my dear."

She left her place behind the table and went up to him. Had all the
world gone wrong? Had her foolishness been so colossal that she was to
be broken twice on the same day? "Gilbert," she said. "What is it? What
do you mean? Why do you say these odd things in this queer way?
You're--you're frightening me, Gilbert."

Young? She was a child as she stood there with her lovely face
upturned. It was torture to keep his hands off her and not take her
lips. But he did nothing. He stood steady and waited for his brain to
clear. "Odd things in a queer way? Is that how I strike you?"

"Yes. I've never seen you in this mood before. If you've brought me
here to make me say I'm sorry, I will, because I am sorry. I'd do
anything to have all these days over again--every one since I climbed
out of my old bedroom window. If you said hard things to me all night I
should deserve them all and I'll pay you what I can of my debt, but
don't ask me to pay too much. I trusted you by coming here alone. Don't
go back on me, Gilbert."

He touched her cheek and drew his hand away.

"But I haven't brought you here to make you humble yourself," he said.
"There's nothing small in this. What you've done to me has left its
marks, of course, deep marks. I don't think you ever really understood
the sort of love mine is. But the hour has gone by for apologies and
arguments and regrets. I'm standing on the very edge of things. I'm
just keeping my balance on the lip of eternity. It's for you to dr