"I believe there is nothing to forgive," said Guest warmly. "No: you come as his good angel to ask him by his love for you to be open and frank, and tell you why he has acted thus. He will not speak to me, his oldest friend: he cannot refuse you. But mind," he continued earnestly, "it must not be told you under the bond of secrecy; he must tell you truly, and leave it to us afterward to decide what is best to be done." "Yes," she said, speaking more firmly now, "I understand. I have come to help the man who was to have been my husband, in his sore time of trial. The feeling of shame, degradation, and shrinking has passed away. Percy Guest, I am strong now, and I know. It is no shameless stooping on my part: I ought to have come to him before." "God bless you for that, Myra!" he whispered earnestly, and he bent down and kissed her hands. As he raised his head he found that Edie had crept forward, and was looking at him wildly from out of her little fur-edged hood. For the moment Guest thought nothing of all this, but at a sign from Myra drew open the outer door, and she stood in the dimly lit entry as if framed; she let her hood fall back, and gazed straight before her into the quaintly furnished room as if wondering that she did not at once see the object of her thoughts. Then they saw her take a couple steps forward, and, as if from habit, thrust to the inner door, shutting in the scene beyond, and leaving Guest and Edie in the gloom of the landing. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. FROM HOPE TO FEAR. For a few moments nothing was said, and Guest paid no heed to his companion, but stood bent forward listening for some exclamation of surprise uttered by Stratton, or a word from Myra. But all was silent as the grave, and, with his pulses increasing the rapidity of their beats, he gazed at the faint, narrow streak of light, almost within reach of his hand, where the edge of the inner door was within a quarter of an inch of the jamb. "Ought I to have let her go in alone?" he asked himself. "Ought I not to have sent in Edie, too--is there any risk?" Then, quick as lightning, followed thought after thought as to the peril to which, through his and Edie's scheming, Myra might be exposed; and he saw himself afterward face to face with father and aunt, bearing the brunt of their reproaches for what now began to seem a wild escapade. He was brought back to himself in the midst of the semi-darkness by a low, catching sigh, and he turned sharply round to see behind him, as in another frame, the outlined figure of Edie. He took a step toward her quickly, but she drew back right to the great balustrade of the landing, and supported herself against it. "Edie," he whispered, trying to take her hand; but she repulsed him, and turned her back to look down the opening to the hall. "Edie," he said again quickly; and this time he caught her hand. "Don't touch me!" she said in a low, passionate whisper.