That is all I know."
He looked at her steadily, the grief which he was fighting to keep
back tightening the muscles about his mouth.
Like the quick passing of sunshine, the fun swept from her face,
leaving her blue eyes staring up at him, filled with a pain which he
had never seen in them before. In a moment he knew that she had
understood him, and he could have cut out his tongue. Her hand reached
his arm, and she stopped him, her face lifted pleadingly, the tears
slowly gathering in her eyes.
"Forgive me!" she whispered, her voice breaking into a sob. "Dear,
dear Jan, forgive me!" She caught one of his hands in both her own,
and for an instant held it so that he could feel the throbbing of her
heart. "To-day is your birthday, Jan--yours and mine, mine and yours--
and we will always have it that way--always--won't we, Jan?"
CHAPTER XVII
THE RENUNCIATION
Jan was glad when the evening came, and was gone. Not until Jean and
Iowaka had said good night with Croisset and his wife, and both
Cummins and Melisse had gone to their rooms, did he find himself
relieved of the tension under which he had struggled during all of
that night's merry-making in the cabin.
From the first he knew that his nerves were strung by some strange and
indefinable sensation that was growing within him--something which he
could hardly have explained at first, but which swiftly took form and
meaning, and oppressed him more as the hours flew by.
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