me positively sick to see a fellow like you mixed up with such a crew in such a game. Get out of it, man, get out of it while you can! Now’s your time. Get out of it, for God’s sake!”

I sat up in my eagerness. I saw him waver. And for one instant a great hope fluttered in my heart. But his teeth met. His face darkened. He shook his head.

“That’s the kind of rot that isn’t worth talking, and you ought to know it,” said he. “When I begin a thing I go through with it, though it lands me in hell,


439 of 585

to give such thanks to the Almighty as this heart has never felt before or since. And I remained kneeling; for now my face was on a level with the sill; and when my eyes could see again, there stood my darling before them in the room.

Like a queen she stood, in the very travelling cloak in which I


439 of 967