ling the truth to that extent?" questioned
Saltash.

"I shall know if she doesn't," said Bunny doggedly.

"And will that help?" The note of mockery that was never long absent from
his voice sounded again. "Isn't it possible--sometime--to try to know too
much? There is such a thing as looking too closely, _mon ami_. And then
we pay the price."

"Do you imagine I could ever be satisfied not knowing?" said Bunny.

Saltash shrugged his shoulders. "I merely suggested that you are going
the wrong way to satisfy yourself. But that is your affair, not mine. The
gods have sent you a gift, and because you don't know what it is made
of, you are going to pull it to pieces to find out. And presently you
will fling it away because you cannot fit it together again. You don't
realize--you never will realize--that the best things in life are the
things we never see and only dimly understand."

A vein of sincerity mingled with the banter in his voice, and Bunny was
aware of a curious quality of reverence, of something sacred in a waste
place.

It affected him oddly. Convinced though he was that in one point at least
Saltash had sought to deceive him it yet influenced him very strongly in
Saltash's favour. Against his judgment, against his will even, he saw him
as a friend.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, speaking slowly, his eyes upon the
swarthy, baffling countenance, "that you have never even tried to know
where she came from--what she is?"

Saltash made a quick gesture as of remonstrance. "_Mon ami_, the last I
have always known. The first I have never needed to know."

"Then," Bunny spoke with difficulty, but his look never wavered, "tell
me--as before God--tell me what you believe her to be!"

"What I know her to be," corrected Saltash, "I will tell you--certainly.
She is a child who has looked into hell, but she is still--a child."

"What do you mean?" questioned Bunny.

Saltash's eyes, one black, one grey, suddenly flashed a direct challenge
into his own. "I mean," he said, "that the flame has scorched her, but it
has never actually touched her."

"You know that?" Bunny's voice was hoarse. There was torture in his eyes.
"Man--for God's sake--the truth!"

"It is the truth," Saltash said.

"How do you know it? You've no proof. How can you be sure?" He could not
help the anguish of his voice. The words fell harsh and strained.

"How do I know it?" Saltash echoed the words sharply. "What proof? Bunny,
you fool,