Only for a moment, as he looked at her, a flash of tenderness seemed to come back to them. Then he said, with a touch of sadness: “Why should the first word between us be a lie?”

Ethel made no answer.

Reginald looked at her half in wonder and said: “And is your love for the boy so great that it overcame your hate of me?”

Ah, he knew! She winced.

“He has told you?”

“Not a word.”

There was something superhuman in his power of penetration. Why should she wear a mask before him, when his eyes, like the eyes of God, pierced to the core of her being?

“No,” she replied,