"I haven't much time, nor have you any to waste, so I'll not beat around the bush, Pendleton--we'll cut the preliminaries and come down to the facts----" He paused, and Pendleton wondered what was coming. Was he about to make a scene because of anything he had heard in regard to Stephanie? "It's this way," Lorraine went on:--"I don't know whether you know it or not, but I fancy you do.--I've made an infernal damn fool of myself in the way I've treated Stephanie. I see it all now. I've been lying here and thinking, and thinking, with nothing else to do, and it's perfectly plain, perfectly plain. It was all my fault originally. I had her--and I lost her--and I've no one but myself to blame in the first instance. If I'd been careful of her--had appreciated her--she would have had no occasion to make a mistake. Amherst wouldn't have had a chance to work his smooth way with her. Damn Amherst! I could choke the life out of him--_damn him! damn him!_" "Don't excite yourself, Lorraine," Pendleton cautioned. "Why not leave this matter until you are better and able to be about?" "No--I must say it now. It will do me good to say it. I'll try not to get excited. I'm not excited now--see?" He held up an unsteady hand. "At least, not much. We'll let Amherst rest, for the moment. I'll handle him when I'm quite fit--if I can ever find him. Do you think I'll find him, Pendleton?" "Certainly you will find him," Montague answered soothingly. "And now you wait and tell me all this some other time--to-morrow." "No--now--to-day," persisted the sick man. "Listen! You were Stephanie's best friend before the wedding. You've always been a friend--until she went away. I want you to be her friend still, Pendleton. She needs a friend who is trustworthy--who is dependable--who won't be misunderstood by the world. She won't have _me_--I tried--I offered to take her back--to let the past be buried--to forget and forgive--to be all to her that I should have been. But she declines. I went to her house and offered--plead with her--besought her--without avail. She visited me the other day, at my request--but she hasn't softened toward me. I don't know that she will ever soften. I'm afraid she won't. Yet I mean to try, Pendleton--I mean to try; and though it takes a year, or ten years, I shan't give up. I shall never give up, Pendleton, I shall never give up!--Will you help me--will you be her friend?--Stand by her at this crisis--when she won't have her husband, yet needs him more than she ever needed him? Won't you try to take my place toward her--you understand, old man; guard her--protect her--sympathize with her? You were fond of her once--you still are fond of her. She may let _you_--she wouldn't let me.--Save her, Pendleton--save her from herself, if need be.--You will, won't you, you will?" he ended, his voice sinking to a mere whisper.