e, but in part
it is my true name also." Suddenly she paused and glanced aside at
him. "I have spoken with unusual frankness to you this morning, Mr.
Winston. Most people, I imagine, find me diffident and
uncommunicative--perhaps I appear according to my varying moods. But I
have been lonely, and in some way you have inspired my confidence and
unlocked my life. I believe you to be a man worthy of trust, and
because I thus believe I am now going to request you not to ask me any
more. My past life has not been so bright that I enjoy dwelling upon
it. I have chosen rather to forget it entirely, and live merely for
the future."

They were standing before the door of the ladies' entrance to the hotel
by this time, and the young man lifted his hat gravely.

"Your wish shall certainly be respected," he said with courtesy, "yet
that does not necessarily mean that our friendship is to end here."

Her face became transfigured by a sudden smile, and she impulsively
extended her hand.

"Assuredly not, if you can withstand my vagaries. I have never made
friends easily, and am the greater surprised at my unceremonious
frankness with you. Yet that only makes it harder to yield up a
friendship when once formed. Do you intend, then, to remain with the
company? I have no choice, but you have the whole world."

"Yet, my intense devotion to the art of the Thespian holds me captive."

Their eyes met smilingly, and the next instant the door closed quietly
between them.

Winston turned aside and entered the gloomy hotel office, feeling
mentally unsettled, undetermined in regard to his future conduct. Miss
Norvell had proven frankly intimate, delightfully cordial, yet
overshadowing it all there remained unquestionably a certain constraint
about both words and actions which continued to perplex and tantalize.
She had something in her past life to conceal; she did not even pretend
to deceive him in this regard, but rather held him off with deliberate
coolness. The very manner in which this had been accomplished merely
served to stimulate his eagerness to penetrate the mystery of her
reserve, and caused him to consider her henceforth as altogether
differing from other girls. She had become a problem, an enigma, which
he would try to solve; and her peculiar nature, baffling, changeable,
full of puzzling moods, served to fascinate his imagination, to invite
his dreaming. A strange thrill swept him when he caught a fleeting
g