When I look back over the past I feel that perhaps I am holding a chained devil; but when I look forward I forget, and doubt seems folly."
"In your place," she said, "I would risk my life upon it!"
The passion in her voice amazed him. He comprehended even less clearly than before.
"I know what it has cost," she said. "No one better. I am afraid to pass the door of the room where it lies, in the dark. It is like a dead thing, always there. Sometimes I fancy it is not alone and that the door might open and show me some one with it."
"What do you mean?" he said. "You speak as if——"
"You would not understand if I should tell you," she answered a little bitterly. "We are not very good friends—perhaps we never shall be—but I will tell you this again, that in your place I would never give it up—never! I would be true to him, if all the world were against me!"
She went away and shortly afterward he left the room himself, intending to go upstairs.
As he reached the bottom of the staircase, a light from above fell upon his face and caused him to raise it. The narrow passage itself was dark, but on the topmost stair his mother stood holding a lamp whose light struck upon him. She did not advance, but waited as he came upward, looking down at him, not speaking. Then they passed each other, going their separate ways.
The next day Ffrench appeared in the engine-room itself. He had come to see Murdoch, and having seen him went away in most excellent humor.
