in time a weary bondage. Then I realised that I had condemned him also
to this hard desert life. I came down and took counsel of the old
Sphinx. Those calm, wise eyes, looking on into futurity, seemed to say:
'They only live who love.' That evening I resolved to give up the Nile
trip, return home immediately, send for Garth, admit all to him, asking
him to let us both begin again just where we were three years ago in
the moonlight on the terrace at Shenstone. Ten minutes after I had
formed this decision, I heard of his accident."

The doctor shaded his face with his hand. "The wheels of time," he said
in a low voice, "move forward--always; backward, never."

"Oh, Deryck," cried Jane, "sometimes they do. You and Flower know that
sometimes they do."

The doctor smiled sadly and very tenderly. "I know," he said, "that
there is always one exception which proves every rule." Then he added
quickly: "But, unquestionably, it helps to mend matters, so far as your
own mental attitude is concerned, that before you knew of Dalmain's
blindness you should have admitted yourself wrong, and made up your
mind to trust him."

"I don't know that I was altogether clear about having been wrong,"
said Jane, "but I was quite convinced that I couldn't live any longer
without him, and was therefore prepared to risk it. And of course now,
all doubt or need to question is swept away by my poor boy's accident,
which simplifies matters, where that particular point is concerned."

The doctor looked at Jane with a sudden raising of his level brows.
"Simplifies matters?" he said.

Then, as Jane, apparently satisfied with the expression, did not
attempt to qualify it, he rose and stirred the fire; standing over it
for a few moments in silent thought. When he sat down again, his voice
was very quiet, but there was an alertness about his expression which
roused Jane. She felt that the crisis of their conversation had been
reached.

"And now, my dear Jeanette," said the doctor, "suppose you tell me what
you intend doing."

"Doing?" said Jane. "Why, of course, I shall go straight to Garth. I
only want you to advise me how best to let him know I am coming, and
whether it is safe for him to have the emotion of my arrival. Also I
don't want to risk being kept from him by doctors or nurses. My place
is by his side. I ask no better thing of life than to be always beside
him. But sick-room attendants are apt to be pig-headed; and a fuss
under these cir