His arms clasped her closer.  “I know,” he said.  “I know.  But you mustn’t be hurt or sorry if I cannot say the same.  My life is a more complex affair than yours, remember.”

“Ah!  That is India!” she said.  “But let me share that part too!  Let me be a partner in all!  I can be as secret as the wiliest Oriental of them all.  I would so love to be trusted.  It would make me so proud!”

He kissed her again.  “You might be very much the reverse sometimes,” he said, “if you knew some of the secrets I had to keep.  India is India, and she can be very lurid upon occasion.  There is only one way of treating her then; but I am not going to let you into any unpleasant secrets.  That is Bluebeard’s Chamber, and you have got to stay outside.”

She made a small but vehement gesture in his arms.  “I hate India!” she said.  “She dominates you like—­like—­”

“Like what?” he said.

She hid her face from him.  “Like a horrible mistress,” she whispered.

“Stella!” he said.

She throbbed in his hold.  “I had to say it.  Are you angry with me?”

“No,” he said.

“But you don’t like me for it all the same.”  Her voice came muffled from his shoulder.  “You don’t realize—­very likely you never will—­how near the truth it is.”

He was silent, but in the silence his hold tightened upon her till it was almost a grip.

She turned her face up again at last.  “I told you it was madness to marry me,” she said tremulously.  “I told you you would repent.”

He looked at her with a strange smile.  “And I told you it was—­Kismet,” he said.  “You did it because it was written that you should.  For better for worse—­” his voice vibrated—­“you and I are bound by the same Fate.  It was inevitable, and there can be no repentance, just as there can be no turning back.  But you needn’t hate India on that account.  I have told you that I will give her up for your sake, and that stands.  But I will not give you up for India—­or for any other power on earth.  Now are you satisfied?”

Her face quivered at the question.  “It is—­more than I deserve,” she said.  “You shall give up nothing for me.”

He put his hand upon her forehead.  “Stella, will you give her a trial?  Give her a year!  Possibly by that time I may tell you more than I am able to tell you now.  I don’t know if you would welcome it, but there are always a chosen few to whom success comes.  I may be one of the few.  I have a strong belief in my own particular star.  Again I may fail.  If I fail, I swear I will give her up.  I will start again at some new job.  But will you be patient for a year?  Will you, my darling, let me prove myself?  I only ask—­one year.”

Her eyes were full of tears.  “Everard!  You make me feel—­ashamed,” she said.  “I won’t—­won’t—­be a drag on you, spoil your career!  You must forgive me for being jealous.  It is because I love you so.  But I know it is a selfish form of love, and I won’t give way to it.  I will never separate you from the career you have chosen.  I only wish I could be a help to you.”