And Bella tried feebly to tell him. He had been attached to her for a long time, and had come over with her from the States. "And you--did you mean to marry him, Bella?" "I had thought of it--it seemed suicidal to say no to such an offer, and then I--oh, Jack, when I saw you I knew I could never love any other man!" He poured out a draught and held it to her trembling lips. "I feel so strangely weak," she said; "you are going to marry Ethel, and I am nothing to you now?" John Chetwynd drew her close to him, so that the tired head rested on his shoulder with the sweet familiarity of long ago. "Listen," he said. "I have been a coward, frightened of the truth. The world was dearer to me than happiness, or I thought so, and I hesitated, afraid of its contempt. But amid my weakness was one thought, one impulse, which no amount of worldly prudence or consideration could stifle, and Bella--my wife--that was my love for you." "Jack, Jack, is it true?" "I have loved you always, through all my life, you and no other. I see now how hard I must have seemed to you and how wild and unreasonable I was in my expectation from you and how at last it drove you from my side. The shame of it is not more yours than mine. We both erred, we both sinned; but I was older and should have been wiser; the burden of it should fall on me. The world is nothing to me now--less than nothing. Let us take up life where we broke it off. Give me back the past, which held for me all of happiness I have ever known." She lay with a smile of peace upon her face, both hands clinging to his. "I have communed with myself and thought it well out, and I believe that to bind my life, with its memories of you, to the girl to whom I am engaged, would be a cruel wrong and an injustice to her. She deserves a better fate, and I honestly feel that the rupture will not grieve her much. We will remarry, you and I. I will take you away from England, I will guard and cherish you, and in my love for you, you will grow stronger. Oh! my darling, my darling, if you knew what life has been to me since you went; how I have blamed myself,--I who ought to have shielded you against yourself, and have been a moral backbone to your weakness. Then as time went on I persuaded myself that I had succeeded in putting you out of my heart,--that I had forgotten you,--and then--you came back to me, and the past leapt living from the years that had no power to bury it, and I knew that you were more to me than honour or fame or anything the world held. Hence-forth I will be so gentle with you, so tender--so loving." "Will you--kiss me--Jack?" She had gradually pulled herself upright on the pillows. "Will you kiss me--and say--once more, as you used to--'God bless you--wifie'?" Their lips met and clung together. "God bless you--wifie." And there was silence, a long silence, broken by a gasp, a sigh, and a gentle unloosening of the clasping arms. "Bella--Bella--speak to me, my beloved."