It was Deleah who had waited for him there.

"It is only I, papa," she said when he stopped short at sight of her.
"Only your little Deleah that I--I--loves you so."

"Be off to bed, this instant," he said, and pointed an angry finger in the
direction of her room.

But she put her arms about his neck and clung to him with stifled sobbing,
till with the choke of his own sobbing she felt his great chest heave
beneath her clinging form.

When he had flung himself upon the bed beside his wife he was choking and
sobbing still, in a fashion dreadful to hear.

"William!" she said timidly, and put a shaking hand upon his shoulder. "Is
there anything I can do or say that can help you, William?"

He did not answer her, but the bed shook with his rending sobs; and she
lay and sobbed beside him.

When at length such calm as comes from exhaustion fell: "I did it for you
and the children," he said. "I thought, with luck, I could have put it
right. But it was for all of you I did it. You will remember that?"

"I will remember it while I live," she said. "You may be quite sure that
neither your children nor I will ever forget."

"Deleah upset me. She should have been in bed"--it was so he excused his