I must tell you myself. It would be one of the best
things in the world to ride that ten miles back again to-morrow morning,
to have told you how things are, to have felt your hand in mine, and to
know that there was no shadow of misunderstanding between us!"

Stephen, too, rose to his feet. They stood together before the fire.

"Man to man, John," Stephen said, as he gripped his brother by the
hands, "I love you this moment as I always have done and as I always
shall do. And if this thing must be between us, I'll say but one last
word, and you'll take it from me, even though I am the only man on earth
you'd take it from. Before you marry, ask her!"

XXXII

John went back to town, telling himself that all had gone as well as he
had expected. He had done his duty. He had told Stephen his news, and
they had parted friends. Yet all the time he was conscious of an
undercurrent of disconcerting thoughts.

Louise met him at the station, and he fancied that her expression, too,
although she welcomed him gaily enough, was a little anxious.

"Well?" she asked, as she took his arm and led him to where her
motor-car was waiting. "What did that terrible brother of yours say?"

John made a little grimace.

"It might have been worse," he declared. "Stephen wasn't pleased, of
course. He hates women like poison, and he always will. That is because
he doesn't know very much about them, and because he will insist upon
dwelling upon certain unhappy incidents of our family history."

"I shall never forget the morning he came to call on me," Louise sighed.
"He threatened all sorts of terrible things if I did not give you up."

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" John asked.

"I thought it might worry you," she replied, "and it couldn't do any
good. He believed he was doing his duty. John, you are sure about
yourself, aren't you?"

"Come and have tea with me in my rooms, and I'll tell you," he laughed.

"Just what I'd planned to do," she assented, with a sigh of content.
"It's too late to go home and get back to the theater comfortably."

"The theater!" John murmured, a few minutes later, when they were seated
in his comfortable little sitting room and he had ordered tea. "Do you
know that I grudge those three or four hours of your day?"

"I believe I do, too," she admitted; "and yet a little while ago it was
my only pleasure in life. Don't sit over there, please! You are much too
far