I saw what you had gone through, what you had feared, what had been your life all these weeks, rising and lying down! I saw what you meant when you bade me go anywhere but here, and why you suffered what you did at their hands, and why they dared to treat you--so! And had they been here I would have killed them!" he added, his eyes sparkling.

"And had you been here----" "Yes ?" she did not seek to check him now.

Her bearing was changed, her eyes, soft and tender, met his as no eyes had ever met his.
"I should have worshipped you! I should have knelt as I kneel now!" he cried.

And sinking on his knees he extended his arms across the table and took her unresisting hands.

"If you no longer have a secret, you had one, and I bless God for it! For without it I might not have known you, Anne! I might not have----" "Perhaps you do not know me now," she said; but she did not withdraw her hands or her eyes.