The Dermott news., 1913-12-11
CHAPTER Xxli.
The Hour of Reckoning.
own little g

ne NOur or NcCSOnlnS.
 Mark Robertson and his wife. left alone. together. in the other end of the great library. faced the situation for which Grace had SO long been pre- pairing and for which her frightened years of preparation had proved so useless
 Mark strove for speech. But for the trst time in his roughly aggressive ca reer. suitable words were denied him. Alternately he loneed to tell her in naked terms what she was and how utterly he dcsptsed her Again sush of selfpIty urged him to reproach her for the wrecklng of his ideals. the blasting of his happiness Vanity comjng part way 10 bis aid he framed and left uuspokeu-a curt sentence of farewell And. ill the end. all he could say was
 Why didn't you tell me"
 It WAS not what he had intended to say lt was banal- II expressed none Of the stark moods that seethed In hum Yet as she did not answer, he found himself asking once more
 Why didn't YOU tell me-
 And now. unknown and unw;shed for. there crept into hts bald question a note that was almost of entreaty,
 Tell you" she echoed "Oh, If you knew how I've wanted to-"
 Then
 T didn't dare. didn't dare"
 Truth and honor surely
 Your love meant more to me than truth and honor sacrificed them to keep II would sacrifice them and everything else to get 1t back Is that shameless2 Perhaps The truth usually is If had told you. you would never have forgiven me You know you wouldn't If I've wrouged you
 TT you had loved me as A true wom- an loves. you would have told me. You would have had to You could not have deceived me like this. Love doesnt iced on lies I; 0as my right 10 know everything. so that l could decide my own course Instead. you have led me into this trap There is no escape now And it Is too late to repfoach you or to try to make you realize what you have done You say your love for me kept you from tell. ing? Relieve that. if t is any com fort to you T..
 You say don't know what true love Is" she laughed bitterly I'm afraid | can never learn it from you So your love has dled9 Love cant de. any more than God can die. You have never loved me
 "f
 Never see now that you didn't For you don't know what love means. lived for you Every thought and word and act of mine was shaped for you And for you alone. knew you. l I knew your faults. your follies. your 1 brute savagery. And l loved you for l them as we'll as for the good that was l in you But what was it you loved | The woman you married-or snow 1 white saintly reputation? If you cared only for the reputation that is gone forever. But if you loeed me-the woman am-then I've been every thing you thought l was and wanted me to be ever since the first moment you had the right to think of mo at all 1 gave you my life. from that time on and forever And It has been all yours Before then, it was mine.
 And yet you let me believe 1t was everything your whole life-your first love
 "It wae. All that was worth the giving All that had ever been worth the giving II was my self. Oh. cant you see that 2 womaus body and heart and soul belong not to her first lover but Go her dget love? No woman can even guess what love is until she has found It And I found 1t only