"Sabine--how dared you keep this from me all these years--I--" Then he seized her in his arms and for a few seconds they could neither of them speak--his caresses were so fierce.

At last he exclaimed brokenly, "Sabine--with the knowledge of this between us how could you ever have even contemplated belonging to another man--Oh! if I had only known.

Where is--my son ?" "You must listen, Michael, to everything," Sabine whispered, "then you will understand--I was simply terrified when I realized at last, and only wanted to go back to you and be comforted, so I wrote a letter at once to tell you, and as Mr.Parsons was in England again I sent it to him to have it put safely into your hands.

But by then you had gone right off to China, and Mr.Parsons sent the letter back to me, it was useless to forward it to you, he said, you might not get it for a year." Michael strained her to his heart once more, while his eyes grew wet.
"Oh, my poor little girl--all alone, how frightfully cruel it was, no wonder you hated me then, and could not forgive me even afterward." "I did not hate you--I was only terrified and longing to rush off somewhere and hide--so Simone suggested San Francisco--the furthest off she knew, and we hurried over there and then I was awfully ill, and when my baby was born I very nearly died." Michael was wordless, he could only kiss her.

"That is what made him so delicate--my wretchedness and rushing about," she went on, "and so I was punished because, after three months, God took him back again--my dear little one--just when I was beginning to grow comforted and to love him.
He was exactly like you, Michael, with the same blue eyes, and I thought--I thought, we should go back to Arranstoun and finish our estrangements and be happy again--the three of us--when you did come home--I grew radiant and quite well--" Here two big tears gathered in her violet eyes and fell upon Michael's hand, and he shivered with the intensity of his feelings as he held her close.
"We had made our plans to go East--but my little sweetheart caught cold somehow--and then he died--Oh! I can't tell you the grief of it, Michael, I was quite reckless after that--it was in June and I did not care what happened to me for a long while.