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 much. He has never hinted that I should marry him. I am sure he does not want me. I cannot imagine how such an absurd report got out."

Thorndyke felt stunned. He said, after a moment:

"So you are not engaged to Cathcart?"

"Certainly not. Have I not just said that he has never asked me to marry him? And that he is not the man for whom I would sacrifice any part of my fortune?"

She emphasised the "he," and her words were full of meaning.

Poor Thorndyke was so dazed, so overwhelmed, that he could do nothing but stare stupidly into Constance's face. The man who really loves and suffers is generally stupid at the supreme moment. And as she looked into his eyes, so full of longing and yet half-despairing, she turned her head aside and held out her hand a little way, and he caught it in his.

Ten minutes afterward Scipio Africanus poked his head in the door and saw that which made his