"Why not? I think you're a fearful duffer, but naturally I believe in
you," she said calmly.

"I know why I came by this ship! It's a miracle. I believe I'm going to
make a stand now, I really do! It's fate, and nothing else. There's an
Anchor boat I was to have gone by--via the Cape, you know. She sailed
last week, and I couldn't get off in time. I wanted to wait for the next
as I've not been to the Cape. But the Pater couldn't put up with me for
another week, so out I came! I know why I came! I came to meet you!"

"Do you think so?" she said wonderingly.

"I do! I've never in all my life told the truth about myself before! If
you only knew what that means! I'm too nervous as a rule. But don't you
notice the difference? Of course you're not trained, so you wouldn't
notice as I should. But I'm not even stammering half so much. It's jolly
good of you to listen to me--and it's jolly good for me, because I've no
reason to try to get at you, or to get my own back on you, as I have
with my people all the time."

Marcella felt very small, very helpless. She had a sudden vision of a
man dying in an agony of poisoning while she stood frantic in a doctor's
laboratory, antidotes all round her, but no knowledge in her brain of
which drug to use. And all the time his agony went on, and death drew
nearer. She had not the least idea in the world what to do for Louis
Fame. He frightened her, he disgusted her, he made her feel hungrily
anxious to help, he made her feel responsible and yet helpless, but at
the same time it mattered and challenged her that he had appealed to her
at all. She thought of her father, and remembered with a pang that she