And I loved it--loved it." A poignant grief had shot into her eyes.

Her voice broke almost in a sob.
Amazed, he looked at her in silence across the table.
"You have lived that life, Ladygray ?" he said after a moment.

"You have seen it ?" "Yes," she nodded, clasping and unclasping her slim white hands.

"For years and years, perhaps even more than you, John Aldous! I was born in it.

And it was my life for a long time--until my father died." She paused, and he saw her struggling to subdue the quivering throb in her throat.