is?"

"I suppose I do."

"Do you want as fine a fellow as Philip driven any further? If he leaves
that hospital now, and goes out to the exposure and anxiety of a search
for her, there will be a tragedy that no after regrets can avert. Edith,
what did you say to Miss Comstock that made her run away from Phil?"

The girl turned her face from him and sat still, but the man gripping
her hands and waiting in agony could see that she was shaken by the
jolting of the heart in her breast.

"Edith, what did you say?"

"What difference can it make?"

"It might furnish some clue to her action."

"It could not possibly."

"Phil thinks so. He has thought so until his brain is worn enough to
give way. Tell me, Edith!"

"I told her Phil was mine! That if he were away from her an hour and
back in my presence, he would be to me as he always has been."

"Edith, did you believe that?"

"I would have staked my life, my soul on it!"

"Do you believe it now?"

There was no answer. Henderson took her other hand and holding both of
them firmly he said softly: "Don't mind me, dear. I don't count! I'm
just old Hart! You can tell me anything. Do you still believe that?"

The beautiful head barely moved in negation. Henderson gathered both
her hands in one of his and stretched an arm across her shoulders to
the post to support her. She dragged her hands from him and twisted them
together.

"Oh, Hart!" she cried. "It isn't fair! There is a limit! I have suffered
my share. Can't you see? Can't you understand?"

"Yes," he panted. "Yes, my girl! Tell me just this one thing yet, and
I'll cheerfully kill any one who annoys you further. Tell me, Edith!"

Then she lifted her big, dull, pain-filled eyes to his and cried: "No! I
do not believe it now! I know it is not true! I killed his love for me.
It is dead and gone forever. Nothing will revive it! Nothing in all this
world. And that is not all. I did not know how to touch the depths of
his nature. I never developed in him those things he was made to enjoy.
He admired me. He was proud to be with me. He thought, and I thought,
that he worshipped me; but I know now that he never did care for me as
he cares for her. Never! I can see it! I planned to lead society, to
make his home a place sought for my beauty and popularity. She plans to
advance his political ambitions, to make him comfortable physically, to
stimulate his intellect, to bear him a brood of red-faced children. He
likes h