of carrying through my appointed task."

She gave a little hysterical sob.

"Wait," she begged. "I will answer you in a moment. Give me your hand."

He opened the fingers which he had kept clenched together, and he felt
the hot grip of her hand, holding his passionately, drawing it toward
her until the fingers of her other hand, too, fell upon it. So she sat
for several moments.

"Leopold," she continued presently, "I understand. You are afraid that
I shall betray our love. You have reason. I am full of impulses and
passion, as you know, but I have restraint. What we are to one another
when we are alone, no soul in this world need know. I will be careful.
I swear it. I will never even look at you as though my heart ached for
your notice, when we are in the presence of other people. You shall come
and see me as seldom as you wish. I will receive you only as often as
you say. But don't treat me like this. Tell me you have come back. Throw
off this hideous mask, if it be only for a moment."

He sat quite still, although her hands were tearing at his, her lips and
eyes beseeching him.

"Whatever may come afterwards," he pronounced inexorably, "until the
time arrives I am Everard Dominey. I cannot take advantage of your
feelings for Leopold Von Ragastein. He is not here. He is in Africa.
Perhaps some day he will come back to you and be all that you wish."

She flung his hands away. He felt her eyes burning into his, this time
with something more like furious curiosity.

"Let me look at you," she cried. "Let me be sure. Is this just some
ghastly change, or are you an imposter? My heart is growing chilled. Are
you the man I have waited for all these years? Are you the man to whom
I have given my lips, for whose sake I offered up my reputation as a
sacrifice, the man who slew my husband and left me?"

"I was exiled," he reminded her, his own voice shaking with emotion.
"You know that. So far as other things are concerned, I am exiled now. I
am working out my expiation."

She leaned back in her seat with an air of exhaustion. Her eyes closed.
Then the car drove in through some iron gates and stopped in front
of her door, which was immediately opened. A footman hurried out. She
turned to Dominey.

"You will not enter," she pleaded, "for a short time?"

"If you will permit me to pay you a visit, it will give me great
pleasure," he answered formally. "I will call, if I may, on my return
from Norfolk."

She gave him