clench. "I don't want to tell you what I mean,"
he said. "Haven't I said enough?"

She shook her head slowly, with drawn brows. "No--no! I've got to
understand. Do you mean Guy doesn't want me after all? Didn't he
really mean me to come? He--sent a message."

"I know. That's the infernal part of it." Burke Ranger spoke with
suppressed force. "He was blind drunk when he sent it."

"Oh!" She put up her hands to her face for a moment as if to
shield herself from a blow. "He--drinks, does he?"

"He does everything he ought not to do, except steal," said Ranger
bluntly. "I've tried to keep him straight--tried every way. I
can't. It isn't to be done."

Sylvia's hands fell again. "Perhaps," she said slowly, "perhaps I
could."

The man started as if he had been shot. "You!" he said.

She met his look with her wide eyes. "But why not?" she said. "We
love each other."

He turned from her, grinding the floor with his heel. "God help me
to make myself intelligible!" he said.

It was the most forcible prayer she had ever heard. It struck
through to her very soul. She stood motionless, but she felt
crushed and numb.

Ranger walked to the end of the room and then came straight back to
her.

"Look here!" he said. "This is the most damnable thing I've ever
had to do. Let's get it over! He's a rotter and a blackguard.
Can you grasp that? He hasn't lived a clean life all these years
he's been away from you. He went wrong almost at the outset. He's
the sort that always does go wrong. I've done my best for him.
Anyhow, I've kept him going. But I can't make a decent man of him.
No one can. He has lucid intervals, but they get shorter and
shorter. Just at present--" he paused momentarily, then plunged
on--"I told you last night he wasn't ill. That was a lie. He is
down with delirium tremens, and it isn't the first time."

"Ah!" Sylvia said. He had made her understand at last. She stood
for a space staring at him, then with a groping movement she found
and grasped the back of a chair. "Why--why did you lie to me?" she
said.

"I did it for your sake," he answered briefly. "You couldn't have
faced it then."

"I see," she said, and paused to collect herself. "And does
he--does he realize that I am here?" she asked painfully. "Doesn't
he--want to see me?"

"Just now," said Ranger grimly, "he is too busy thinking about his
own troubles to worry about anyone else's. He does know you are
c