Their attentions pleased her; but exchange Tommy for one of them--never! He knew it from her confessions at all stages of her life; he had felt it from the days when he began to be father and mother to her as well as brother.

In his heart he believed there was something of his own odd character in Elspeth which made her as incapable of loving as himself, and some of his devotion to her was due to this belief; for perhaps nothing touches us to the quick more than the feeling that another suffers under our own curse; certainly nothing draws two souls so close together in a lonely comradeship.

But though Tommy had reflected about these things, he did not trouble Elspeth with his conclusions.

He merely gave her to understand that he loved her and she loved him so much that neither of them had any love to give to another.

It was very beautiful, Elspeth thought, and a little tragic.
"You are quite sure that you mean that," she might ask timidly, "and that you are not flinging away your life on me ?" "You are all I need," he answered cheerily, and he believed it.