vens! haven't you any personal ambitions--you and Lynda?"
McPherson had learned to admire Conning, and Lynda had always been one
of his private inspirations.

"None that Lynda and I cannot supply ourselves," Truedale replied. "To
have our work, and the necessity for our work, taken from us would be no
advantage."

"But haven't you a duty to the money?"

"Yes, we have, and I'm trying to find out just what it is."

And living this strange, abnormal life--often wondering why, and
fearing much--three, then four years, passed them by.

It is one thing for two proud, sensitive natures to enter upon a
deliberate course, and quite another for them to abandon it when the
supposed need is past. There was now no doubt in Truedale's heart
concerning Lynda's motive for marrying him; nor did Lynda for one moment
question Truedale's deep affection for her. Yet they waited--quite
subconsciously at first, then with tragic stubbornness--for something to
sweep obstacles aside without either surrendering his position.

"He must want me so that nothing can sway him again," thought Lynda.

"She must know that my love for her can endure anything--even this!"
argued Conning, and his stand was better taken than hers as she was to
find out one day.

It seemed enough, in the beginning, to live their lives close and
confidentially--to feel the tie of dependence that held them; but the
knot cut in deep at times and they suffered in foolish but proud
silence.

Many things occurred during those years that widened the horizon for
them all. Betty's first child came and went, almost taking the life of
the young mother with it. Before the possible calamity Brace stood
appalled, and both Conning and Lynda realized how true a note the girl
was in their lives. She seemed to belong to them in a sense stronger
than blood could have made her. They could not imagine life without her
sunny companionship. Never were they to forget the grim dreariness of
the once cheerful apartment during those days and nights when Death
hovered near, weighing the chances. But Betty recovered and came back
with a yearning look in her eyes that had never been there before.

"You see," she confided to Lynda, "there will always be moments when I
must listen to hear if my baby is calling. At times, Lyn, it seems as if
he were just on ahead--keeping me from forgetting. It doesn't make me
sad, dear, it's really beautiful that he didn't quite escape me."

"And do you go to T