Then, with a sudden stinging consciousness, the thought came of all
that her decision had meant to his life. The old question whether he
had done right in marrying Ninitta forced itself upon him as if it were
some enemy springing up from ambush. He raised his eyes, and his glance
met that of Mrs. Greyson.

"It is no use, Helen," he broke out, impulsively, "we must talk
frankly. It is idle to suppose that we can go on in an artificial
pretence that we have nothing to say."

She put up her hand appealingly.

"Only do not drive me away again," she pleaded. "Don't say things that
I have no right to hear!"

A dark red stained Herman's cheek, and the tears came into his eyes.

"No," he returned. "If any one is to be driven away it shall not be
you."

"But why need we trouble the things that are past," she went on, with
wistful eagerness. "Why cannot we accept it all in silence, and be
friends."

He looked at her with a passionate, penetrating glance. She felt a wild
and foolish longing to fling herself upon the floor and embrace his
feet; but the old Puritan training, the resistant fibre inherited from
sturdy ancestors, still did not fail her.

"You have your wife," she hurried on, "your home, your boy. That is