ddenly, unexpectedly, caught her hand
up to his face. "All the same, you are mine--you are mine!" he
told her hotly. "You belonged to me from the beginning, and
nothing else counts or ever can count against that. I would have
died to get out of your way. I tried to die. But you brought me
back. And now, say what you like--say what you like--you are mine!
I saw it in your eyes last night, and I defy every law that man
ever made to take you from me. I defy the thing you call duty.
You love me! You have always loved me! Deny it if you can!"

It was swift, it was almost overwhelming. At another moment it
might have swept her off her feet. But a greater force was at work
within her, and she stood her ground.

She drew her hand away. "Not like that, Guy," she said. "I love
you. Yes, I love you. But only as a friend. You--you don't
understand me. How should you? I have grown beyond all your
knowledge of me. I was a girl in the old days--when we played at
love together." A sharp sob rose in her throat, but she stifled
it. "All that is over. I am a woman now. My eyes are
open,--and--the romance is all gone."

He stiffened as if he had been struck, but only for a second. The
next recklessly he laughed. "That is just your way of putting it,"
he said. "Love doesn't change--like that. It either goes out, or
it remains--for good. It is you who don't understand yourself.
You may turn your back on the truth, but you can't alter it. Those
who have once been lovers--and lovers such as you and I--can never
again be only friends. That, if you like, is the impossible.
But--" He paused for a moment, with lifted shoulders, then
abruptly turned to go. "Good-bye!" he said.

"You are going?" she questioned.

He swung on his heel as if irresolute. "Yes, I am going. I am
going back to my cabin, back to my wallowing in the mire. Why not?
Is there anyone who cares the toss of a halfpenny what I do?"

"Yes." Breathlessly she answered him; the words seemed to leap
from her of their own accord, and surely it was hardly of her own
volition that she followed and held his arm, detaining him. "Guy!
You know we care. Burke cares. I care. Guy, please, dear,
please! It's such a pity. Oh, it's such a pity! Won't you--can't
you--fight against it? Won't you even--try? I know you could
conquer, if only--if only you would try!" Her eyes were raised to
his. She besought him with all the strength of her being. S