d not see him until that had been done."

"Did he do it?" asked Katherine eagerly. A white light of
illumination had suddenly flashed into her mind concerning the
nature of the boon which Jervis Ferrars had begged at the hands of
Mary, and been denied.

Mr. Selincourt laughed. "I told you that he was a man and not a
lapdog. That sort don't go crawling round asking pardon for wrongs
they have not committed. The next we heard of Archie Raymond was
that he had joined Max Bohrnsen's Arctic Expedition in place of a
man who had fallen out through sickness, and that he had sailed for
the Polar Seas on a two years' absence."

"Poor Mary!" sighed Katherine again, then immediately felt ashamed
of her own secret light-heartedness.

"Yes, it was poor Mary then," replied Mr. Selincourt, a shade
coming over his pleasant face. "The worst of it was that she had
only herself to thank for all the trouble that had come upon her,
and as it was not a thing to be talked about, it had to be borne
without any outside sympathy to make it easier."

"Has she never heard from him since?" asked Katherine softly, and
now there were tears in her eyes, and a whole world of pity in her
heart for this girl who had deliberately flung away the love she
wanted, from pure obstinacy and self-will.

"Only once. Directly she knew that he had gone beyond recall she
began to repent in good earnest, and sent him a cable to the only
port where his vessel would be likely to stop, something to this
effect; 'It is I who apologize; will you forgive?' And after weeks
and weeks of waiting this answer came back: 'Yes, in two years'
time'."

Katherine drew a long breath, and her eyes were still misty. "How
long the waiting time must seem to Mary, and the months can bring
her no tidings of what she most wants to know."

"That is true; but I am quite sure it is good for her," Mr.
Selincourt answered. "Never before has there been anything in her
life which called for waiting or patience, and it is the lessons
which are hardest to learn which do us most good."

"Won't Mary be displeased because you have told me all this?" asked
Katherine.

"It will make no difference to her if she does not know, and you
are not the sort of girl to go about bragging of the things you
have been told. But it seemed to me that it might help you to an
understanding of Mary's character if you knew," Mr. Selincourt
replied rather awkwardly.

Katherine flushed a sudden, uncom