“If—­if he has any, he requires no instruction how to bear it.”

Malcourt nodded, then, with a weary smile:  “I do not plead with you for my own chance of happiness.  Yet, you owe me something, Shiela.”

“What?”

“The right to face the world under true colours.  You owe me that.”

She whitened to the lips.  “I know it.”

“Suppose I ask for that right?”

“I have always told you that, if you demanded it, I would take your name openly.”

“Yes; but now you admit that you love Hamil.”

“Love!  Love!” she repeated, exasperated.  “What has that got to do with it?  I know what the law of obligation is.  You meant to be generous to me and you ruined your own life.  If your future career requires me to publicly assume your name and a place in your household, I’ve told you that I’ll pay that debt.”

“Very well.  When will you pay it?”

She blanched pitifully.

“When you insist, Louis.”

“Do you mean you would go out there to the terrace, now!—­and tell your mother what you’ve done?”

“Yes, if I must,” she answered faintly.

“In other words, because you think you’re in my debt, you stand ready to acknowledge, on demand, what I gave you—­my name?”

Her lips moved in affirmation, but deep in her sickened eyes he saw terror unspeakable.

“Well,” he said, looking away from her, “don’t worry, Shiela.  I’m not asking that of you; in fact I don’t want it.  That’s not very complimentary, but it ought to relieve you....  I’m horribly sorry about Hamil; I like him; I’d like to do something for him.  But if I attempted anything it would turn out all wrong....  As for you—­well, you are plucky.  Poor little girl!  I wish I could help you out—­short of a journey to eternity.  And perhaps I’ll take that before very long,” he added gaily; “I smoke too many cigarettes.  Cheer up, Shiela, and send me a few thousand for Easter.”

He rose, gracefully as always, picked up the book from where it lay tumbled in the netting of the hammock, glanced casually through a page or two.

Still scanning the print, he said: 

“I wanted to give you a chance; I’m going North in a day or two.  It isn’t likely we’ll meet again very soon....  So I thought I’d speak....  And, if at any time you change your ideas—­I won’t oppose it.”

“Thank you, Louis.”

He was running over the pages rapidly now, the same unchanging smile edging his lips.

“The unexpected sometimes happens, Shiela—­particularly when it’s expected.  There are ways and ways—­particularly when one is tired—­too tired to lie awake and listen any longer, or resist....  My father used to say that anybody who could use an anaesthetic was the equal of any graduate physician—­”

“Louis!  What do you mean?”

But his head was bent again in that curious attitude of listening; and after a moment he made an almost imperceptible gesture of acquiescence, and turned to her with the old, easy, half-impudent, half-challenging air.