world, Hugh," she said softly--"the finest, the
dearest, and best."

"That's bad!" Hugh thought. "But I might have guessed that she would say
that, bless her little heart! Poor Tom!" He sighed. "So, after all, this
beautiful muddle I have made of things goes for nothing! Do you care to
tell me who he is, Marjorie?"

"Don't ask me--don't ask me! I can't tell you! I wish I hadn't come. I
had no right to ask you to--to listen to me. I wish I hadn't written
now!"

He came across to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He bent and
kissed the bright hair.

"Little girl, remember always that I am your old friend and your true
friend, who would help you in every way at any time. I am not of much
use, I am afraid; but such as I am, I am at your service, dear, always,
always! Tell me, what can I do? How can I help you?"

"Nothing, nothing, you--you can't help me, Hugh!"

"Can I see Tom?"

"No, oh no, you must not!"

"Can I see--the other? Marjorie, does he know? Has he spoken to you--not
knowing perhaps of your engagement to Tom?"

She shook her head. "He--he doesn't know anything!"

Silence fell on them.

"Don't think about it any more, you can't help me. Hugh, where have you
been all this long time?"

"I have been in Kent, at Starden."

"Is--is that where she--"

"Joan? Yes! she lives there. I have been there, believing I can help
her, and I shall help her!"

"You--you love her so?"

"Better than my life," he said quietly, and never dreamed how those
four words entered like a keen-edged sword into the heart of the girl
who heard them.

She rose almost immediately.

"I am a foolish, silly girl, and--and, Hugh, I want you to forget what I
told you. I shall forget it. I shall go back to--to Tom, and I will try
and be worthy of him, try and be good-tempered and--all he wants me to
be. Good-bye, Hugh!"

It seemed to him that she had changed suddenly, changed under his very
eyes; the tenderness and the tears seemed to have vanished. She spoke
almost coldly, and with a dignity he had never seen in her before, and
then she went with scarce a look at him, leaving him sorely puzzled.

CHAPTER XXXIII

GONE

"DEAR JOAN,

"I daresay you will wonder at not having heard from me for so
long, but I have been busy. Things have been going from bad to
worse with me of late, and I have been obliged to give up the old
offices in Gracebury. I often think of the days when we were so
mu