Nell blushed and shook her head.

"Surely there was some one among all you knew who was not quite blind,
who was sensible enough to fall in love with the loveliest and the
sweetest girl in all London?"

Nell's blush grew warmer as she remembered some of the men who had paid
court to her, who would have been her suitors if she had not kept them
at arm's length.

"There was no one," she said simply.

"Falconer?" he said, in a low voice.

The color slowly ebbed from her face, and her eyes grew rather sad as she
reflected that her happiness had been purchased at the cost of his pain
and self-sacrifice.

"Yes," she said, in a whisper, for she could not hide the truth from
him; her heart was bare to his gaze. "If--if you had not come, if he had
chosen to accept me, I should have married him. But you came at the very
moment, Drake; and at the sound of your voice----He saw my face, and
read the truth."

"Poor Falconer," he said, very gravely. "He is a better man than I am,
than I shall ever be, even under the influence of your love, and the
happiness it will bring me. I owe him a big debt, Nell; and though I
can't hope to pay it, I must do what I can to make his life more
smooth."