"Not often ... sometimes ...."

"If you do, for God's sake tell her I'm happy ... happy as a
king ... tell her you could see for yourself that I was ...."
His voice broke in a little gasp. "I ... I'll be damned if ...
if she shall ever be unhappy about me ... if I can help it ...."
The cigarette dropped from his fingers, and with a sob he
covered his face.

"Oh, poor Nelson--poor Nelson, " Susy breathed. While their cab
rattled across the Place du Carrousel, and over the bridge, he
continued to sit beside her with hidden face. At last he pulled
out a scented handkerchief, rubbed his eyes with it, and groped
for another cigarette.

"I'm all right! Tell her that, will you, Susy? There are some
of our old times I don't suppose I shall ever forget; but they
make me feel kindly to her, and not angry. I didn't know it
would be so, beforehand--but it is .... And now the thing's
settled I'm as right as a trivet, and you can tell her so ....
Look here, Susy ..." he caught her by the arm as the taxi drew
up at her hotel .... "Tell her I understand, will you? I'd
rather like her to know that .... "

"I'll tell her, Nelson," she promised; and climbed the stairs
alone to her dreary room.

Susy's one fear was that Strefford, when he returned the next
day, should treat their talk of the previous evening as a fit of