XXXVII
INDELIBLE EVIDENCE
For some time Northcote stood holding her hand
and looking down into her eyes. A sense of deep
wonder was percolating slowly to every part of
his being. What a haven was here to embrace when
the frail bark of his nature had been flung, like the
cockle-shell that it was, upon the crest of tempestuous
and multitudinous seas. How blind and undeveloped
he had been not to have understood this
before! From what ignominy could this anchorage
have saved him! It would not have been necessary
to founder upon the shoals had he been
aware of this harbor that would have been so willing
to embrace him. He was already broken into
pieces; and those tears which appeared to suffuse
his eyes with such facility and to suffuse hers with
such a painful reluctance were falling from him.
"You must ignore that unmannerly attack in the Age," she said in a stern voice which yet was full of redress. "The enemies of the friendless have no kingdom into which they can enter. A few years hence, when you are a rich and honored man, you will forgive them for having once stabbed you."
The silence which followed her words was broken by the hard and intense breathing of the figure that clasped her.
"There is one thing I shall ask of you," said
