LE GAIRE FORCES A DECISION He left the room reluctantly enough, pausing at the door to glance back, but she had sunk down into the rocker, and made no relenting sign.

Every sense of right compelled me to withdraw; I could not remain, a hidden spy, to listen to her conversation with Le Gaire.

My heart leaped with exultation, with sudden faith that possibly her memory of me might lie back of this sudden distrust, this determination for freedom.

Yet this possibility alone rendered impossible my lingering here to overhear what should pass between them in confidence.

Interested as I was personally I possessed no excuse to remain; every claim of duty was elsewhere.