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once he suspected the man's hand in. preventing a. loan just when nego tiations appeared upon the point of success. For three or mour months longer this state of affairs continued. Some times a way out of theincreasing dif ficulties appeared; then the gap closed. Clay and Miss Marston be came more intimate. She had intro duced him to her mother, with whom she lived, in a modest apartment up town. Clay learned that the girl's father had been a wealthy man. but had died in poverty after a bankrupt cy. He wondered how she nould ob tain the means to support her mother on the limited salary he could afford to pay. He began to feel, too, that once the storm was weathered, he would be justified in asking her to become bis wife. The intimacy between them was the stronger because no word of love had ever been spoken. Six months after Clay's twelve month had begun the end was in "sight. "It's all up with us, Miss Marston," said John. "We've done our best, but Rea & Co. are going to sue us. Now well have to get out as best we can. Will you please take a letter from dictation. And he dictated a letter which went soreljragainst the grain. He offered Maclntyre the secret and the entire right to manufacture the-product of his factory for $10,000. "See that it goes off by tonight's mail, Miss Marston, please," he said. He watched the girl stamp and seal the missive and place it in her bas ket. And the knowledge that all was over inspired him with relief that was stronger than his sorrow. Miss Marston, what would you say to a little jaunt in" an auto tomor row? he asked. "We might celebrate the end of my fortunes by taking run out to Newbury and lunching there." "Very well," said Miss Marston, raising'her head and looking him in the face. Clay was amazed to see tears in her eyes. Did ie care so much, then? " It was a very quiet drive the fol lowing morning, through hedgerows gay with spring flowers. They found a little, old-fashioned inn, where they ate lunch, and afterward they sat un der the shade of a big tree upon a little rustic seat. "Miss Marston, you know' what this has meant to me?" She nodded without answering him. "I want to tell you," he contin ued, taking her hand, "that I have felt for a long time that I wanted you for my wife. It was my intention to ask you after the year. But now, as a failure, I do not know that I am jus tified in asking you, for that $10,000 and what I have left will just cover my indebtedness. I am a beggar." Suddenly he perceived thatthe girl was shaking with sobs. He drew her into his arms and let her rest her faceagainst his shoulder. , "wm you wait for me till I have done something, till I am justified in asking you dear?" he asked. She sprang out of his arms and faced him. "Listen, John," she began- "I am wholly unworthy of you. If you only knew what I have tried to gather courage to tell you for so long. I came to you with forged rec ommendations. I was hired by Mac lntyre to find out your secret I did it because I wanted my mother to have the comforts to which she had been accustomed in her old age." There was a long pause. "But you didn't betray the secret," said John quietly. "No! A thousand times no. I told Maclntyre that I would repay him the $500 he had advanced me. I could not betray you after I had realized what a dreadful scheme I had under taken. But now I can make amends' - ' by telling you this. Maclntyre isat his wits end. He has been living on his capital, too. He has spent every thing he has, and if you hold out ana si HMMMMfliNBftfi Vr sj-j