Page:GB Lancaster--law-bringer.djvu/413

Rh speakably to give. She laid her hand lightly on his knee for a moment.

"You are afraid that she will tempt him to—to forget his work and to run away with her, or or something of that sort. He won't, Mr. Tempest. And he won't be cruel to her. I think he will try to treat her as I would want him to treat her."

Tempest looked up sharply.

"How do you know that?"

"Because he loves me and I love him. And we have told each other so," said Jennifer bravely.

Tempest stared at her, not conscious that he was staring.

"Is that true?" he said.

"Yes."

"My God!" said Tempest. He put his hand up to his forehead. "He—he has" He looked away, stunned by the revelation. "You—you can't mean but how could he ever have"

"Each time I sent him away it maddened him. I can't understand. Perhaps you can't, either. But— I have had to understand that it did not alter his feeling for me. I could not blind my eyes to that."

"But" he fell into thought again. Then he seemed to catch hold of his natural courtesy. "I did not deserve this nobleness from you," he said. "I think no woman could have done a more gracious act."

"I had to." Jennifer was speaking very low and levelly, with her hands gripped tight. "I trust him, and you must trust him too."

"But you said you sent him away? And last time—I—I beg your pardon. I didn't mean to"

"This time was different," said Jennifer steadily. "He—we said more than we had done before. We knew that—there could not be anyone else. You see he understood that he had perhaps brought Harry back to me."

Tempest shivered. Beside this tragedy even his own seemed to have faded. For he did not love—he never had loved Andree as Dick assuredly would love this woman. The thought brought him to his feet with his pulses beating unevenly and his voice unsteady.

"I do not know how to thank you for telling me this.