"I wouldn't tell--and I'd understand." "Yes, I think you would," she said thoughtfully.

"But I can't tell it even to you because I can't tell it well enough yet.

I've a feeling that there's only one way to tell it--and I don't know the way yet.

Some day I'll know it--and then I'll tell you, Bev." Long, long after she kept her word.

Forty years later I wrote to her, across the leagues of land and sea that divided us, and told her that Jasper Dale was dead; and I reminded her of her old promise and asked its fulfilment.