pon her sister,
"I am going to tell you things I have never told you before. I feel I
shall go mad to-night, if I don't tell some one. Don't ask me any
questions. Just listen and--if you can--love me!"

Nance paused just inside the door. Her own face looked pale above the
shimmering blue and silver of her evening dress; her dark blue eyes
were full of a peculiarly tender light.

"I don't love you, Clo," she said below her breath. "I adore you. Tell
me whatever you like."

Clodagh threw out her hands despairingly.

"I'm not worth love like that," she cried. "You'll know it when I've
finished. Do you remember long ago, Nance, when James and I went to
Venice? Do you remember my letters from Venice?"

Nance showed no surprise at the sudden irrelevant questions.

"All of them," she answered--"I have them all."

"Then you remember how I met Frances Hope and Val Serracauld--and Lord
Deerehurst?"

"I remember."

"I was very much alone at that time, Nance. James was only a shadow in
my life; and they--they seemed like sunshine, and I wanted the
sunshine. I have always been like a child, turning to bright tawdry
things."

"Clo! you're upset to-night!--you're ill!"

"No, I'm not. I've been seeing myself and seeing my life to-night. I
liked these people--I liked these men who talked to me and flattered
me, and ignored the fact that I had a husband--I liked them and
encouraged them. And one night, on the balcony of the Palazza
Ugochini----" She stopped, then made a sudden gesture, as if to sweep
unnecessary things aside. "But I won't talk of that!" she cried. "It is
the later time I want to come to--the time after James's death, when I
met Frances Hope again." She paused to regain her breath; but the look
of determination did not leave her face. Her dark eyes seemed; almost
to challenge Nance's. "When I went to Monte Carlo with Frances," she
went on, "I did not go to forget poor James's death, as you believed; I
went to forget something else that had made me much more unhappy; and
the way I set about forgetting was to gamble. Yes, I know what you
feel!--I know what you think! But it cannot alter anything. I gambled.
I lost large sums of money that Frances advanced me. I _had_ to borrow,
because there were formalities to be gone through about James's will,
before I could draw my income. Then I came back to London; I met Val
Serracauld and Lord Deerehurst again; I took an expensive flat; I lived
like people six times as