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480 not pain Tempest too much. Then he added: "I think she did not suffer at the last. She died in my arms, and her eyes were glorious when I closed them."

"She loved you to the last, Dick?"

"Yes."

There was a pause. Then Tempest said, quietly:

"Thank you. I think I am glad to know that. It would make her happy just to be with you. And yet—they said she ran away from you."

"She did. But that was not the beginning. I ran away with her first, Tempest."

"You did what?"

"I was taking her out to Dawson City. Wait a minute! I changed my mind and tried to bring her back. I suppose I was rather brutal to her, and she ran away from me. There is no need for you to make any comment on this. Don't imagine that I have lost all sense of proportion because I so nearly lost everything else."

Tempest sprang up and began to walk through the room. It was his old habit when in strong agitation, and Dick sat still, staring at the floor. He did not know that he had meant to tell Tempest. Now he saw that it could not have been otherwise. He owed Andree's ever-true lover that. Presently he said:

"I should like to tell you one reason why I really did that thing. But I cannot."

"I know." Tempest halted in his walk. "It was because Mrs. Ducane sent you away."

"You" Dick's oath was hot and quick. "What do you know about that?"

"Mrs. Ducane told me, Dick."

"She told you?"

"She knew that I was dreading this very thing; and she told me that it would not be, and she told me why she was sure of it."

He continued to walk the room, and Dick's eyes went back to the floor. This hurt more than he had expected to be hurt again. It was Tempest who spoke next.

"I have no right to blame any man when I have been so far from blameless myself. If I had been less hard to you it might have helped you."