insidious comment which she half feared would follow. When another
day passed without her seeing him, she nevertheless was conscious of a
little embarrassment when his attendant brought her the request that
she would give him a moment's speech in the porch, whither he had been
removed.

She found him physically weaker; indeed, so much so that she was fain,
even in her embarrassment, to assist him back to the bench from which
he had ceremoniously risen. But she was so struck with the change in
his face and manner, a change so virile and masterful, in spite of its
gentle sadness of manner, that she recoiled with a slight timidity as if
he had been a stranger, although she was also conscious that he seemed
to be more at his ease than she was. He began in a low exhausted voice,
but before he had finished his first sentence, she felt herself in the
presence of a superior.

"My thanks come very late, Miss Forsyth," he said, with a faint smile,
"but no one knows better than yourself the reason why, or can better
understand that they mean that the burden you have so generously taken
on yourself is about to be lifted. I know all, Miss Forsyth. Since
yesterday I have learned how much I owe you, even my life I believe,
though I am afraid I must tell you in the same breath that THAT is of
little worth to any one. You have kindly helped and interested yourself
in a poor stranger who turns out to be a nobody, without friends,
without romance, and without even mystery. You found me lying in the
road down yonder, after a stupid accident that might have happened to
any other careless tramp, and which scarcely gave me a claim to a bed
in the county hospital, much less under this kindly roof. It was not my
fault, as you know, that all this did not come out sooner; but while it
doesn't lessen your generosity, it doesn't lessen my debt, and although