Then he checked himself. “What nonsense I have talked — how abstract and remote! And I have made you cry! Dear girl, forgive my prosiness; marry my boy. When I think what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love — Marry him; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

She could not understand him; the words were indeed remote. Yet as he spoke the darkness was withdrawn, veil after veil, and she saw to the bottom of her soul.

“Then, Lucy — ”

“You've frightened me,” she moaned. “Cecil — Mr. Beebe — the ticket's bought — everything.” She fell sobbing into the chair. “I'm caught in the tangle. I must suffer and grow old away from him. I cannot break the whole of life for his sake. They trusted me.”