d in her girlhood, things that floated about in the dark corners
of her memory, were pressing close. Dreadful things that had been forced
upon her against her will but which she reasoned could never happen to
her, or to any of her own.

"You mean," she faltered gropingly at last, "that another woman has----"
She could not voice the ugly words and Thornton was obliged to be a
little more explicit.

Then he saw his wife retreat--spiritually. He hastened after her as best
he could.

"You see, darling," he was frightened, "out here, where a fellow is cut
off from home ties and all that, the old code does not hold--how could
it? I'm no exception. Why, good Lord! child----" but Meredith was not
listening. He saw that and it angered him.

She was hearing words spoken long ago--oh! years and years ago it
seemed. Words that had lured her from Doris, from safety, from all the
dangerous peace that had been hers.

"Sweetheart," that voice had said, "there is one right woman for every
man, but few there be who find her. When one does--then there is no time
to be lost. Life is all too short at the best for them. Come, my
beloved, come!"

And she had heeded and, forsaking all else, had trusted him.

According to his lights Thornton had sincerely meant those words when he
spoke them. He was under the spell, still, as he looked at the small
frozen thing before him now.

If he could win her from her absurd, and almost unbelievable, position;
if he could, through her love and his, gain her absolutely; make her
_his_--what a conquest!

"My precious one, I am yours to do with what you will!" he was saying
with all the fervour of his being; but Meredith looked at him from a
great distance.

"You were never mine!" was what she said. Then asked:

"Is that--that woman here? Will I ever--meet her?"

Thornton was growing furiously angry.

"Certainly not!" he replied to her last question, incensed at the
implied lack of delicacy on his part. Then he added, "Don't be a fool,
Merry!"

"No, I won't," she whispered, grimly. "I won't be a fool, whatever else
I am. Do you want me to leave you at once, or stay on?"

Thornton stared at her blankly.

"Good God!" he muttered; "what do you mean, stay on?"

"I mean that if I stay it will be because I don't want to hurt you more
than I must--and because things don't matter much, either way. I have my
own money--but, well, I'll stay on if it will help you in your
business."

Then light