Virginia as one of Sir Edwyn Sandys’ maids, and at the last moment her heart had failed her. There had been pressure brought to bear upon me that day, — I had been angered to the very soul. I sent her away with a heavy bribe, and in her dress and under her name I fled from — I went aboard that ship. No one guessed that I was not the Patience Worth to whose name I answered. No one knows now, — none but you, none but you.”

“And why am I so far honored, madam?” I said bluntly.

She crimsoned, then went white again. She was trembling now through her whole frame. At last she broke out: “I am not of that crew that came to marry! To me you are the veriest stranger, — you are but the hand at which I caught to draw myself from a pit that had