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 that he was leaving her in displeasure and abhorrence; but he had only stepped behind the cab for a moment to speak to the driver. In a moment he was back, standing by the step with one hand on the apron and staring in very earnestly and soberly at the shadowed sweetness of her pallid face, that gleamed in the gloom there like some pale, shy, sad flower.

Could there be evil combined with such sheer loveliness, with features that in every line bodied forth the purity of the spirit that abode within? In the soul of him he could not believe that a thief's nature fed canker-like at the heart of a woman so divinely, naïvely dear and desirable. And … he would not.

"Won't you let me go?"

"Just a minute. I … I should like to. … If I find that you have done nothing so very dreadful," he laughed uneasily, "do you wish to know?"

"You know I do." She could not help saying that, letting him see that far into her heart.