The two men were looking into each other’s eyes, and Michael at last knew what that strange, potent sensation had been, which had shaken him on encountering Gilbert’s look that night, when they had been almost side by side at the concert-room. Not hate, not resentment, as he had fancied; neither one nor the other; but his old love for his brother, the ancient, inborn love, which not all the anger, enmity, and bitterness had succeeded in quenching. And the voice which addressed them both, went on speaking still, earnestly, tremulously, with passionate conviction— ‘If but one good thing came out of all this blackness, would it not be better than nothing—nothing but sin and sorrow? And there is so much grief and so much wrong in the world, that if men had not forgiveness to fight them with, I do not see how there could be any chance for happiness at all.’ There was another little pause. At last Gilbert said, in a low voice— ‘I never hated him——’ Without quite knowing how, they found their hands clasped, each in one of the other’s, and Michael said, ‘Shall it be all over, Gilbert?’ ‘From the bottom of my heart.’ ‘Then let us say no more about it.’ Eleanor rose. ‘I shall leave you,’ she said, gently. ‘Stay here if you choose. I shall go to Mrs. Parker.’ Gilbert and Michael both made a movement towards the door, but something in Gilbert’s look caused Michael to fall back and yield place to his brother. He turned away, went inside the room again, and looked into the fire, feeling that he could afford to be very magnanimous. Gilbert opened the door, and as Eleanor was passing out, he said to her almost in a whisper— ‘Only one word. You and he—are you—has he—have you given him any promise?’ Eleanor looked at him steadily, though without any of the old distrust, and then answered him in the same voice, but with a proud smile— ‘I have promised him everything. I have given my life into his hands.’ ‘I am too late?’ She hesitated, looking troubled. Gilbert smiled slightly. ‘I should always have been too late, Eleanor?’ She looked at him appealingly, and inclined her head. He bowed to her, and she went quickly away. Gilbert returned to the room, and to his brother. ‘I shall never want to say anything to her again, Michael, that you may not hear.’ Michael looked at him, but said nothing, and Gilbert went on— ‘Shall we have to see her again to-night—on this matter, I mean?’ ‘No. Let us go to my house, if you will come. There is a black business to be settled, sooner or later.’ CHAPTER XL ‘AMIDST THE BLAZE OF NOON’