"I don’t want you to pretend to be. I want you to try to be." "I will!" He was silent for a time. "Now, then!" he said. "It won’t do to keep them all waiting any longer. Are you quite ready?" "Do you mean for us to get married just the same?" "Of course!" he said. "I couldn’t be such a prig. I’ve simply got to forget what you’ve told me, and thank Heaven that I’ve got you after all. You might have married the fellow!" He was his own kind self again, but she could see that his great pride in her, his great joy, were gone. "Come!" he said again. "We shall be very late." But she prevented him from leaving. She caught him by the arm and stood before him, looking up into his face. "Eddie!" she cried, with a gasp that seemed to tear her heart out. "I’ve _got_ to! I can’t deceive you. Oh, _God_! It’s so awful!" He didn’t move or speak. "Eddie," she said, "it _was_ that!" "Ah, it was!" he said, in a tone of polite surprise. "I had a baby." A shudder ran through him, and he closed his eyes in mortal pain. "You can’t ever know what I suffered! Oh, Eddie, Eddie, I’ve been punished enough for what I did! And the poor little baby----” "Never mind!" he said, in a voice so low that she could hardly hear him. "Don’t tell me any more. I don’t want to know." He undid her fingers from his arm. "I want to get away," he said. "Good-by!" But she stopped him again. "And the man was _Vincent_!" she screamed. "Now! Now! _Now_ you know!" CHAPTER FIFTEEN The next morning, just at the usual hour, Angelica entered the back parlour, where Sillon and Devery were working side by side. They both looked up in a sort of stern surprise, and waited for her to speak first. She stood before them, a quivering smile on her lips. She seemed on the verge of tears; but after a silent moment she raised her eyes to look at them with a sublime and touching bravery. "Can I come back?" she asked. They were both speechless. "I don’t want to explain," she said, in a trembling voice. "Not ever! But if I can come back, I’ll--go on--just the same." Miss Sillon got up. "Certainly!" she said pleasantly. "If you like, we’ll go on--in the old way. We’ll forget all this. Don’t you think so, Devery?" "Of course!" said Devery. But no matter how they tried, their cordiality was strained, their looks averted. They knew, all three of them, that it would be a long time before this thing could be forgotten. Half of the letters of "Angélique" had gone from the windows--and how much more had gone as well? But at least their friendship endured. They neither questioned her nor blamed her; they simply took her back, as whole-heartedly as was possible to them. Whatever incredible and discreditable occurrence may have interrupted that dazzling wedding, they would not repudiate her. She went to her cupboard, took out the box in which she had kept her odds and ends, and, sitting down at her old table, spread out the glittering, gay scraps before her.