-Tell me it isn't too late, Jane? Tell me you care?
Help me. I have never pleaded for help before. I plead to you."

Her eyes were wet and beautiful with the shine of tears. It seemed to
him in that moment of intense emotion that he could read there
everything he desired in life. Her lips met his almost eagerly, met his
and gave of their own free will.

"Andrew," she murmured, "you see, you are the only man except those of
my family whom I have ever kissed, and I kiss you now--again--and
again--because I love you."

CHAPTER XVIII

Tallente, notwithstanding the glow of happiness which had taken him down
to Westminster with the bearing of a young man, felt occasional little
shivers of doubt as he leaned back in his seat during the intervals of a
brief but portentous debate and let his mind wander back to that short
hour when he seemed to have emptied out all the hidden yearnings which
had been lurking in the dark corners of his heart and soul. His love
for Jane had no longer the boyish characteristics of a vague worship.
He made no further pretences to himself. It was Jane herself, and not
the spirit of her sex dwelling in her body, which he desired. A tardy
heritage of passion at times rejuvenated him and at others stretched him
upon the rack.

He walked home later with Dartrey, clinging to the man with a new
sympathy and drinking in with queer content some measure of his
happiness. Dartrey himself seemed a little ashamed of its exuberance.

"If it weren't that Nora is so entirely a disciple of our cause,
Tallente," he said, "I think I should feel a little like the man in the
'Pilgrim's Progress,' who stopped to pick flowers by the way. She is
such a help, though. It was she who pointed out the flaw in that second
amendment of Saunderson's, which I had very nearly passed. Did you read
her article in the National, too?"

"Wonderful!" Tallente murmured. "There is no living woman who writes
such vivid and convincing prose."

"And the amazing part of it all is," Dartrey went on, "that she seeks no
reward except just to see the cause prosper. She hasn't the faintest
ambition to fill any post in life which could be filled by a man. She
would write anonymously if it were possible. She has insight which
amounts to inspiration, yet whenever I am with her she makes me feel
that her greatest gift is her femininity."

"It must be the most wonderful thing in life to have the help of any one
like Nora," Tallente said dr