Chapter XVI

For a little time, perhaps as long as it took his heart to pound thrice in wild tumult, they confronted each other in silence. Then--"Eve!" he cried, softly; and--

"You!" she whispered.

Again a silence, in which he could have sworn that he heard his heart beating with gladness and the stars singing in the heavens.

"I--I wasn't sleepy," she said, breathlessly.

"Nor I. I didn't want to sleep. I wanted"--he stepped through the gateway and seized the hand that lay against her breast--"you."

"Please!" she cried, straining away at the length of her slender arm. "You mustn't! You got my note!"

"And tore it to fragments--an hour since! I don't remember a word of it!"

"But I meant it!"

"You didn't!"

"Let me go, please; I ought not to be here; I don't want to stay here."

"You must stay until--but you're trembling!" He dropped her hand and stood back contritely. "Have I scared you?"

"Yes.... I don't know.... Good night."

She turned, but didn't go. The moonlight enfolded her slim form with white radiance and danced in and out of her soft hair. Wade drew a deep breath.

"Will you listen a moment to me, please?" he asked, calmly.

She bowed her head without turning.

"You said in your note that you did not care to be made a convenience of. What did that mean, please?"

"You know!"

"But I don't. You must tell me."

"I don't wish to. Why do you try to pretend with me?" she asked with a flash of scorn.

"Pretend! Good Lord, is this pretense? What do you mean? Is it pretense to be so madly in love with you that--that yesterday and to-day have"--he caught himself up. "You must tell me," he said, quietly.

"I meant that I would not marry you to salve your conscience." She turned and faced him, her head back scornfully. "You thought some of that money should be mine and because I refused to take it you--you tried to trick me! You pretended you--cared for me. Don't I understand? You threatened one day to have your way, and you thought I was so--so simple that I wouldn't guess."

"You mean," he asked, incredulously, "that you think I want to marry you just so I can--can restore that money to you?"

"Yes," she answered, defiantly. But there was a wavering note in the word, as though she had begun to doubt. He was silent a moment. Then--

"But if I told you--convinced you that you were wrong? What then?"

There was no answer. She had turned her head away and stood as though poised for flight, one little clenched hand hanging at her side and gleaming like