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"Yes," said Nell, forgetting her own misery in sympathy for him

He looked at her quickly

"You have noticed it?"

Nell inclined her head

"I have lived in the house--I have seen----" she faltered

He nodded once or twice

"Yes; I suppose that you could not help seeing that there has been a--a

gulf between us; that we are not as other, happier, husbands and wives"

He sighed, and passed his hand across his broearily

"But we are not the only couple who, living in the same house, are

asunder I am not the onlyface, the fact that his wife does not care for him"

Nell raised her head, and the color ca!" she said, in a low voice, but eagerly

"Wrong? I beg your pardon?" he said gravely

"It is all a terrible mistake," said Nell "She does care for you Oh,

yes, yes! It is you who have been blind; it is your fault It is hers,

too; but you are the man, and it is your place to speak--to tell her

that you love her----"

He reddened as he turned to her with a curious eagerness and surprise

"I don't understand you," he said, with a shake in his voice "Do you

mean me to infer that--that I have been under a delusion in thinking

that esture of infinite

weariness

"Oh, how blind you are!" she said, almost impatiently "You think that

she does not care for you, and she thinks that of you, and you are both