“And your help,” said Avery quietly.

His eyes comprehended her for a moment.  “Yes, I did my best,” he said.  “But it was his own nobility in the main that gave him strength.  Have you never noticed that about him?  He has the greatness that only comes to most men after years of struggle.”

“I have noticed,” Avery said, her voice very low.

Crowther went on in his slow, steady way.  “Well, after that, I left.  And the next thing I knew was that the old man had died, and he was married to you.  You didn’t let me into the secret very soon, you know.”  He smiled a little.  “Of course I realized that you had gone to him rather suddenly to comfort his loneliness.  It was just the sort of thing I should have expected of you.  And I thought—­too—­that he had told you all, and you had loved him well enough to forgive him.  It wasn’t till I came to see you that I realized that this was not so, and I had been in the house some hours even then before it dawned on me.”

Again he spoke as one describing something seen afar.

“Of course I was sorry,” he said.  “I knew that sooner or later you were bound to come up against it.  I couldn’t help.  I just waited.  And as it chanced, I didn’t have to wait very long.  Piers came to me one night in August, and told me that the whole thing had come out, and that you had refused to live with him any longer.  I understood your feelings.  It was inevitable that at first you should feel like that.  But I knew you loved him.  I knew that sooner or later that would make a difference.  And I tried to hearten him up.  For he—­poor lad!—­was nearly mad with trouble.”

Avery’s hands closed tightly upon each other in her lap.  She sat in strained silence, still gazing straight before her.

Gently Crowther finished his tale.  “That’s about all there is to tell, except that from the day he left you to this, he has borne his burden like a man, and he has never once done anything unworthy of you.  He is a man, Avery, not a boy any longer.  He is a man you can trust, for he will never deceive you again.  If he hasn’t yet found his place of repentance, it hasn’t been for lack of the seeking.  If you can send him a line of forgiveness, he will go into this war with a high heart, and you will have reason to be proud of him when you meet again.”

He got up and moved in his slow, massive way across the room.

“Now you will let me give you some tea,” he said.  “I am sure you must be tired.”

Had he seen the tears rolling down her face as she sat there?  If so he gave no sign.  Quietly he busied himself with his preparations, and before he came back to her, she had wiped them away.

He waited upon her with womanly gentleness, and later he went with her to the hotel at which Piers usually stayed, and saw her established there for the night.

It was not till the moment of parting that she found any words in which to express herself.