She made a little involuntary movement, as if she wanted to go to him, for she pitied him all at once, with the same sweep of emotion that she had once abhorred him, loving another man. “I have wanted it for twenty years,” she said, and then added impulsively: “I did not half understand how much you loved me--until I heard how you had hidden it all from Diana. At first I was angry, I thought you did it to estrange her from the thought of her mother. Then I realized that you were covering my disgrace, and--and it has broken down my pride!” She stopped with a little sob. “David, will you forgive me?” “I forgave you twenty years ago, Letitia,” he replied; “you are Diana’s mother.” The woman looked at him longingly. “She has been--she is much to you?” “She is all I have,” said Colonel Royall. The shamed tears welled up in her splendid eyes, her lip trembled like a child’s. “I have nothing!” she sobbed wildly; “I am bankrupt!” and she dropped her head on her hands. He looked over at her with compassion, once he passed his hand lightly across his eyes. He felt the absolute restraint that comes to one whose love has been lightly prized; he was nothing to her, it was not for him to comfort her, while Letitia, cowering in her chair, thought him cold-hearted, unforgiving, a proud Royall to the core. Thus are we misinterpreted by those who love us not. “She cares nothing for me!” she sobbed, “you have taught her to love a dead woman!” “I would gladly have taught her to love her mother,” the colonel said quietly, “but how could I begin the lesson? By telling her that you had deserted her?” She rose at that and stood looking at him, through her tears. “You have had your revenge!” she said wildly, “you have had it a thousand times over in that one reproach.” “Letitia,” he said gently, “I never desired revenge. I would have chastised the man who injured me and dishonored you, if I could have done it without dragging your name before the world. Other revenge I never sought.” “You have it!” she cried again bitterly, “you have it; Diana despises me, I read it in her clear eyes. You have brought her up to hate her mother’s sin, so that when she knew it she would hate her mother.” The fine old hands tightened convulsively on the carved arms of his chair. “Would you have had me bring her up to condone such sins?” he asked her sternly, his blue eyes kindling. The shaft went home; its truth bit into her sore heart. “No,” she breathed, hiding her face in her hands, shaking from head to foot. There was a long silence and then her voice. “I can bear no more!”