“But that was the worst of everything. You don’t know how I have reproached myself.”

“You must not.”

“You have not left off caring for me, then?”

“I never cared for you so much.”

“Why do you look so grave, so serious?”

Her heart was shaking as she questioned him. In his tenderness there was something different, something inflexible.

“My darling,” he said again.

“That means...?”

“I am going to ask you to let me stop that cheque.”

“No.”