"Tell me what?"
"About my discovery in the algebra of love?"
"Algebra of love?"
"No, of course he didn't. I don't suppose he ever really understood it," said Lillie with a pathetic smile. "I think I ought to tell you now what it was that made me so—so—you understand."
She put her little warm hand lightly into his and nestled against his shoulder, as if to make amends.
After a delicious silence, for Lord Silverdale betrayed no signs of impatience, Lillie confessed all.
"So you see I have loved you all along!" she concluded. "Only I did not dare hope that the chance would come to pass, against which the odds were 5999."
"But great heavens!" cried Lord Silverdale, "do you mean to say this is why you were so cold to me all those long weary months?"
"It is the only reason," faltered Lillie. "But would you have had me defy the probabilities?"
"No, no, of course not. I wouldn't dream of such a thing. But you have miscalculated them!"