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FLAMING

YOUTH

‘she impatiently awaited the definite solution. the strain of uncertainty;

Relief from

that was what she craved.

On the fourth evening Monty reappeared. All his nobleness was gone. He was haggard, nerve-racked, forlorn. He threw himself upon her compassion. He implored her. He would forgive everything; he would forget everything; he would make no conditions, if only she would take him back. Life without her—— “All right, Monty-boy,” said Pat, really affected by his suffering. “I haven’t changed. I love you, Monty. But if ever you let what Ive told you make any difference, if ever you speak of it or let me know that you even think of it, ’m through. That minute and forever.” Humbly, abjectly, the upholder of man’s superior privilege accepted the absurd condition. The stronger nature had completely dominated the weaker. Back in his arms again, Pat savoured the delicious warmth of a passion the more ardent for the threat of frustration; the triumph of a crisis valorously met and successfully passed. But an encroaching thought tainted the rapture of the moment. What was it that he himself had so confidently said to Selden Thorpe? Was her splendid and beautiful young lover, holding the views which he had proclaimed and surrendering them so readily,

indeed “a poor sort of fish”?