he did. I say, Lorna, I don't
understand your relations to Springfield. Was there anything between
you?'

'Yes,' she replied.

'He asked you to marry him; of course that's no secret. You'll forgive
my speaking plainly, won't you?'

'What do you want to say?'

'What was his power over you? I am taking advantage of our friendship,
even at the risk of being rude and impertinent.'

'He had no power over me,--in the way you think.'

'That sounds like an admission. Is it?'

'Yes, if you like.'

'Then what was his power?'

She looked at me for a few seconds without speaking.

'I can't tell you,' she replied presently.

For some time we walked on in silence; I thinking what her words might
mean, she apparently deep in thought.

'According to the newspaper,' I said after we had gone some distance,
'Springfield left a sealed packet containing letters. Was one of them
for you?'

'Yes.'

'You do not feel disposed to tell me what it contained?'

'I would if I could, but I--can't.'

'Then I'm going to see George St. Mabyn, and get it out of him.'

'George does not know.'

Again there was a painful silence between us, and again I tried to
understand what was in her mind.

'Lorna,' I said, 'I want to tell you something. It has been in my mind
a long time, but if there's one thing you and I both despise it's
speaking ill of another. But I can't help myself. You must know the
truth.'

Thereupon I told her the whole of Springfield's story as I knew it. I
related to her the conversation I had heard between Springfield and
George St. Mabyn. I described the attempts made to kill Jack Carbis.
I told her what Colonel McClure had said, both in our conversations and
in the letter he wrote me after Springfield's death.

'Why have you told me all this?' she asked, and her voice was hard,
almost bitter.

'Because I do not think you understand the kind of man Springfield was.'

'Excuse me, I understand perfectly.'

'You knew all the time! Knew what I have just told you?'

'No, I knew nothing of that; but I knew he was a bad man, knew it
instinctively from the first. That's what makes everything impossible
now.'

'I don't understand.'

'No, of course you don't. Oh, I wish I could tell you.'

'Then do. I wouldn't ask you, only my friend's happiness means a lot
to me.'

She caught my arm convulsively. 'Do you think he cares for me still?'
she asked. 'Do you really?'

'I'm sure he does,' I repl