Gregory took the box, and after some efforts to speak, he went away.  It was an old trouble, an old error, an old folly; he had yielded to impulse at every step, and at every step he had sinned against another or against himself.  What pain he had now given the simple soul of Fane; what pain he had given that poor child who had so mistaken and punished the simple soul!  With Fane it was over now, but with Clementina the worst was perhaps to come yet.  He could not hope to see the girl before morning, and then, what should he say to her?  At sight of a lamp burning in Mrs. Atwell’s room, which was on a level with the veranda where he was walking, it came to him that first of all he ought to go to her, and confess the whole affair; if her husband were with her, he ought to confess before him; they were there in the place of the child’s father and mother, and it was due to them.  As he pressed rapidly toward the light he framed in his thought the things he should say, and he did not notice, as he turned to enter the private hallway leading to Mrs. Atwell’s apartment, a figure at the door.  It shrank back from his contact, and he recognized Clementina.  His purpose instantly changed, and he said, “Is that you, Miss Claxon?  I want to speak with you.  Will you come a moment where I can?”

“I—­I don’t know as I’d betta,” she faltered.  But she saw the box under his arm, and she thought that he wished to speak to her about that, and she wanted to hear what he would say.  She had been waiting at the door there, because she could not bear to go to her room without having something more happen.

“You needn’t be afraid.  I shall not keep you.  Come with me a moment.  There is something I must tell you at once.  You have made a mistake.  And it is my fault.  Come!”

Clementina stepped out into the moonlight with him, and they walked across the grass that sloped between the hotel and the river.  There were still people about, late smokers singly, and in groups along the piazzas, and young couples, like themselves, strolling in the dry air, under the pure sky.

Gregory made several failures in trying to begin, before he said:  “I have to tell you that you are mistaken about Mr. Fane.  I was there behind the letter boxes when you came in, and I know that you left these shoes because you thought he sent them to you.  He didn’t send them.”  Clementina did not say anything, and Gregory was forced to ask:  “Do you wish to know who sent them?  I won’t tell you unless you do wish it.”

“I think I ought to know,” she said, and she asked, “Don’t you?”

“Yes; for you must blame some one else now, for what you thought Fane did.  I sent them to you.”

Clementina’s heart gave a leap in her breast, and she could not say anything.  He went on.