"Elaine!" She tried to speak, but could not; her voice was strangled in her throat; it was not nice to watch her struggles to regain the use of it. He moved towards her, startled. "Elaine! what's the matter?" "I'm--I'm--I'm going to tell you, only I--I---- Give me--something--to drink--there's some water--in the bottle." She pointed to the washstand. He brought her some water; but she could not drink it. She could not hold the glass in her own hand; she could not swallow when he raised it to her lips. He put the glass down on the floor. Her condition frightened him. Although he had just been speaking of leaving her for an indefinite period, now he knelt beside her on the floor, and, putting his arms about her, held her close, soothing her as best he could. It was while he held her that she told him; she confessed in her agony; the words being wrung from her as if they had been gouts of blood. He continued to hold her all the time. When, in his turn, he began to understand her story, he was man enough to realize that it was only his support which gave her the strength she needed; that but for his encircling arms, and the consciousness that they were his arms, she would collapse. As, by degrees, her meaning was borne in on his understanding, the fashion of his countenance was changed, and he kept his face averted, but he never moved. When, in disconnected sentences, the root of the matter had been told, she did what he had not done; she began, in a manner, to excuse herself. "It was--because you said that you wanted money, and--that we couldn't be married without it, that I went back and took the money--which was on the table. And Morgan saw me." "Morgan saw you!" It was the first time he had spoken; there was a curious contrast between his voice and hers. "He was in the room all the time--but in the darkness--I never knew it." "So Morgan has held us in the hollow of his hand; both of us!" "I gave him five hundred pounds the other day, and now he's telegraphed for more." "Poor Elaine! It seems, after all, that we're a well-matched pair, both thieves and cowards." "Herbert!" She spoke as if she shrieked. "My dear, do let us look facts in the face now that we are trying to make ourselves known to each other." "I--shouldn't have taken the money--if I hadn't thought--Nora was rich--and it would make no difference." "I'm afraid that the question of Miss Lindsay's wealth or poverty could make no difference to the thing you did." "I know that--now." "When it seemed that Miss Lindsay was a pauper did you give her back any of the money you had taken under a misconception?" "I meant to--but I never did--I meant to give her a thousand pounds." "It's a pity you didn't; it might have caused the residue to appear a little less dingy. We're a pair of beauties! God help us both; we need His help!" "I--haven't dared to ask for it."