dimly-lighted space. Her very heart stood still to hear his voice.

He spoke. "The best thing you can do is to go back to the place
you came from--and marry someone else."

The words went through her. They seemed to tear and lacerate her.
As in a nightmare vision she saw the bitterness that lay behind
her, the utter emptiness before. She still stared full at him, but
she saw him not. Her terror had taken awful shape before her, and
all her courage was gone. She cowered before it.

"I can't--I can't!" she said, and even to herself her voice sounded
weak and broken, like the cry of a lost child. "I can't go back!"

He came across the room to her, moving quickly, as if something
urged him. She did not know that she had flung out her hands in
wild despair until she felt him gather them together in his own.

He bent over her, and she saw very clearly in his countenance that
which had made her realize that he was not Guy. "Look here!" he
said. "Have a meal and go to bed! We will talk it out in the
morning. You are worn out now."

His voice held insistence. There was no softness in it. Had he
displayed kindness in that moment she would have burst into tears.
But he put her hands down again with a brief, repressive gesture,
and the impulse passed. She yielded him obedience, scarcely
knowing what she did.

He brought her food and wine, and she ate and drank mechanically