"  No,"  said  Miriam,  steadily ;  "  there  are  people  who  still
imagine  that  Max  and  I  shall  one  day  be  married,  but  it  is
not  true.  We  have  never  cared  for  each  other.  I  have
never  really  loved  any  man  but  you ;  and  Max  has,  I  be-
lieve, been  all  the  time  faithful  to  Doreen."

Max  sat  beside  the  bed,  absolutely  silent,  stabbed  to  the
heart  by  those  last  words.  Had  he  not,  rather,  been  abso-
lutely faithless  ?  Had  not  she  herself  reproached  him  with
having  believed  of  her  what  no  other  man  would  have
believed  ?

"  Doreen  was  a  brave  child,"  said  Desmond,  "  and  she  has
proved  herself  a  brave  woman.  She  risked  much  for  love
of  you  last  summer.  I  hardly  thought  what  I  was  asking
of  her.  I  knew  that  Foxell's  widow  and  that  scamp  of  a
Frenchman  had  spies  at  work,  and  that  you  stood  in  danger
of  disgrace  and  exposure.  I  dreaded  lest  you  should  be
hampered  by  that  oath  which  you  took  in  your  boyhood,
and  which  I  well  knew  you  would  never  break ;  but  I
dared  not  see  you  or  communicate  with  you.  Doreen
will  explain  to  you  more  fully  than  I  can  all  that
passed  between  us.  For  I  sent  for  her  one  night,  and,
knowing  that  it  was  for  your  sake,  she  never  heeded  the
strange  time  or  the  disreputable  place,  but  risked  all  and
came."

"It  was  you  she  went  to  see?"  cried  Max,  in  terrible
agitation.  "  Yes,  yes,  I  see  it  all  now  —  miserable  fool  that
I  was  to  doubt  her ! "


DOREEN  479

He  buried  his  face  in  his  hands,  and  groaned  so  bitterly
that,  to  Miriam,  the  truth  was  instantly  revealed.  This,
undoubtedly,  must  have  been  the  cause  of  the  abrupt  ending
of  his  betrothal  with  Doreen.
