“No.  I couldn’t think you meant that.  I thought you tried to save my feelings by saying you cared; that you were sorry for me, and——­”

“I was sorry for myself, because, you see, you’d begun to be the one person in the whole world who mattered.  Oh, wait; don’t speak yet!  I had to make you understand that we couldn’t be anything to each other, and it was so hard for me, that often I’ve wondered if, inadvertently, I said things to hurt you more than you need have been hurt.  Tell me, truly and frankly, what did you believe I meant by that word I used—­’impossible’?”

He hesitated, then answered slowly:  “I felt that I ought to have known, without your telling me, I wasn’t the sort of man for you.”

“You did think that!  Oh, Nick, then I’m glad I sent for you—­I can’t help being glad.  If you loved me, and I were free, nothing in the world could come between us, and I should be the happiest creature on earth.”

“If you were free?” His hand lay heavily on Timmy’s back, and the cat resented it by jumping down.  But both had forgotten Timmy’s existence and their late gratitude to him.

“If I were free.  You thought I was—­you saw me in mourning.  I never meant to make you, or any one, believe a lie.  All I thought of at first was getting away from the old life.  But, oh, Nick, though I’m not a widow, I was never any man’s wife except in name.  I’m Franklin Merriam’s daughter—­you must have heard of him.  And when I was seventeen I married Prince Paolo di Sereno.  That very day I found out there was—­some one who had more right to him that I had.  She came, and threatened to kill herself.  You see, it was not me, it was money he cared for.  But he hated me for saying I would be his wife only in the eyes of the world.  That made him so angry, that he has spent his life since in taking revenge.  When my mother died, nearly a year ago, I made up my mind to leave him altogether, and I did as soon as I could.  I gave him more than half the money, so he didn’t care, for he’d grown quite indifferent; and I took the name of ‘May.’  It is one of my names really.  I was so glad to be some one else and come to a new country to begin a new life!  It never entered my head that I could fall in love with any one—­that there might be complications in my plan.  It seemed so simple.  All I wanted was peace and a quiet life, with a few kind people round me.  Then—­you came.  At first I didn’t realize what was happening to me—­for it had never happened before.  But soon I might have seen if I hadn’t closed my eyes and drifted.  I was happy.  I didn’t want you to go out of my life.  Then came the Yosemite, with you, and—­I couldn’t close my eyes any more.  I saw my own heart.  I thought—­I saw yours.  Now you understand, Nick, why I told you it was impossible for you and me to be anything more to each other than friends.  It was you who said we couldn’t be friends.  And you know—­I want you to know—­that it’s as hard for me as it can be for you, because I love you.”