"You are not quite right in your tenses, Austin," she remarked. "You said: Would I have accepted you if you had asked me?" "I want to change the tense into the present," he replied. She met his glance calmly. "You ask me to marry you in spite of what you told me this afternoon?" "In spite of it and because of it," he said, drawing up a chair near to her. "A great crisis has arisen in our lives that must make you forget other words I spoke this afternoon. Those other words and everything connected with them I blot out of my memory forever. I want you to do me an infinite service. If there had been no deep affection between us I should not dare to ask you. I want you to be my wife, to take me into your keeping, to trust me as an upright man to devote my life to your happiness. I swear I'll never give you a moment's cause for regret." She plucked for a while at her gown. It was a strange wooing. But in her sweet way she had given him her woman's aftermath of love. It was a gentle, mellow gift, far removed from the summer blaze of passion, and it had suffered little harm from the sadness of the day. She saw that he was in great stress. She knew him to be a loyal gentleman. "Is this the result of that scene in the armoury?" she asked quietly. "Yes," said Austin. "I was right then. It was a matter of life and death." "It was," said he. "So is this." She looked again from one face to the other, rose, hesitated for a moment--and then held out her hand. "I am willing to trust you, Austin," she said. He touched her hand with his lips and said gravely: "I will not fail your trust." As soon as she had gone he went to the chair where Dick sat in gloomy remorse and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Well?" said he. "I agree," Dick groaned, without looking up. "I have no alternative. I appreciate your generosity." Then Austin spoke of the appointment in Vancouver. He explained how the idea had occurred to him; how Viviette had come late the night before to tell him of what he had never before suspected--Dick's desire to go abroad; how they had conspired to give him a birthday surprise; how they had driven over to Witherby to send the telegram to Lord Overton. And as he spoke, Dick looked at him with a new ghastliness on his face. "This afternoon--in the dining-room--when you said that Viviette had told you everything--?" "About your wish to go to the Colonies. What else?" "And what I overheard in the armoury--about a telegram--telling me--putting me out of my misery?"