I had never looked upon it as a thing that had had a real happening." "How, then, did you explain your escape ?" "I always imagined that I had been assumed dead." There was a brief spell of silence.

Then-- "And now that you know, Monsieur-- ?" She left the question unfinished, and held out her hands to him in a gesture of supplication.

His face paled slightly and overclouded.

Her influence, against which so long he had steeled himself, reinforced by the debt in which she had shown him that he stood towards her, was prevailing with him despite himself.

Stirred suddenly out of the coldness that he had hitherto assumed, he caught the outstretched hands and drew her a step nearer.