ong and the weak, with
hands outstretched to both, and so standing bring about, perhaps, a
better understanding of each other, then my coming would have been
worth while. But would we ever so stand? All that I had hoped for
seemed as dead as the ashes on the hearth. I had brought him pain
and humiliation, drawn back, without intention, curtains that hid
ugly, cruel things, and for him Scarborough Square would mean forever
bitter memories of bitter revealing. I had failed. I had tried, and
I had failed, and I could hold out no longer.

Getting up, I pressed my hands to my heart to still triumphant
throbbing. It had won, I did not hate his house. I hated its walls.
But I could no longer live without him. I would marry him when he
came back.

CHAPTER XXX

My hands in his, Selwyn looked long at me, then again drew me to him,
again raised my face to his. "A thousand times I've asked. A
thousand times could give myself no answer. Why did you wire me to
come back, Danny?"

"You were staying too long."

He smiled. "No; it was not that. There was something else. What
was it?"

"I wanted to see you."

He shook his head. "What was it? Why did you send for me?"

"To--tell you I would marry you whenever you wish me to--"

His face whitened and the grip of his hands hurt. Presently he spoke
again. "But there was something else. You had other reasons.
Surely between us there is to be complete and perfect understanding.
What is it, Danny?"

I drew away and motioned him to sit beside me on the sofa. In the
firelit room faint fragrance of the flowers with which he kept it
filled crept to us, and around it we both glanced as if its spirit
were not intangible; and at unspoken thought his hands again held
mine.

"You sent for me--" He leaned toward me.

"Because I heard--an unbelievable thing. David Guard tells me--you
have sold--your house. I can think of nothing else. Tell me it is
not true, Selwyn! Surely it is not true!"

"It is true."

With a little cry my fingers interlaced with his and words died on my
lips. As quietly as if no fight had been fought, no sleepless nights
endured, no surrender made at cost of pride beyond computing, he
answered me, but in his face was that which made me turn my face
away, and in silence I clung to him. The room grew still, so still
we could hear each other's breathing, quick and unsteady, then again
I looked up at him.

"But why, Selwyn? Why did y