She tried to smile! 'I am so sorry,' she said gently. 'I will try—yes—I will try to put it all away. But I think you must let me go, Tom. You are looking for the Grace you once knew. You will not find her; she has gone. The horror has touched her, and she can never—never—be the same again.'

'Grace, you will break my heart. As you are, love, as you are, with the sorrow in your eyes and the anguish in your soul, you are more, ten thousand times more, to me than even then in all your dainty pride and sweetness. I loved you, God knows I loved you—now—' he threw himself down on his knees by her side, 'now—I adore you.'

'My poor boy! My poor boy!' she murmured, touching his face tenderly, with her long white fingers.

'Grace,' he whispered. 'Do you care for me a little?'

'I care for you more than a little, Tom. I love you. I have loved you from the first day we met.'

'Loved me! Oh! Grace; oh! my darling! is it true?'

'Hush, dear!' she said softly. 'You must keep quiet. If we speak too loud we shall awake Kit. Poor little Kit! He has suffered so much. And this sleep is restoring him.' Her voice was so quiet that it sent a chill to his heart. There was no passion in it, no trouble, not even the agitation, the sweet tremulous consciousness of a woman happy in loving.

There surged up in his throat a sob of uncontrollable anguish. 'I can't even think of Kit,' he said. 'I can only think of you—you. Say it again, Grace—it is the dearest, sweetest sound in all the world. Whisper it as low as you like and I shall hear it. If I were on earth and you were in heaven, above the stars, myriads and myriads of miles away, still I should hear it. Are you smiling, darling? I can smile too now. But even you don't know everything. I will tell you some day. Say, I love you.'

'I love you, Tom; I love you.' She was still touching his face and hair, still gazing into his face with a tenderness that almost slew him, it was so strangely quiet. 'I did not mean to tell you,' she went on, 'but the time is so short. To-morrow perhaps I shall be somewhere else.'

'Grace,' he cried passionately. 'Do you wish to kill me?'