hat Helen had expected to do was to cry, but the money
meant so much to her just then; her relief was so great that the tears
welled into her eyes. She bit her lip hard but they kept coming, and,
mortified at such an exhibition, she laid her arm on the back of the
worn plush sofa and hid her face.

Tears, however embarrassing, have a way of breaking down barriers and
Bruce impulsively took in his the other hand that lay in her lap.

"What is it, Miss Dunbar? Won't you tell me? If you only knew how proud
and happy I should be to have you talk to me frankly. You can't imagine
how I've looked forward to being allowed to do something for you. It
means everything to me--far more than to you."

Bruce remembered having seen his mother cry, through homesickness and
loneliness, softly, uncomplainingly, as she went about her work in the
ugly frame house back there on the bleak prairie. And he remembered the
roars of rage in which Peroxide Louise had voiced her jealousy. But he
had seen few women cry, and now he was so sorry for her that it hurt
him--he felt as though someone had laid a hand upon his heart and
squeezed it.

"It's relief, I suppose," she said brokenly. "It's disgusting that money
should be so important."

"And do you need it so badly?" Bruce asked gravely.

"I need it if I am to go on living." And she told him of the doctor's
warning.

"You must go away at once." Brace's voice was sharp with anxiety. "I
wish you could come West," he added wistfully.

"I'd love it, but it is out of the question; it's too far--too
expensive."

Bruce's black eyebrows came together. His poverty had never seemed so
galling, so humiliating.

"I must go." She got up quickly. "I'm late. Do my eyes look very badly?"

"They're all right." He turned abruptly for his hat. He knew that if he
looked an instant longer he should kiss her! What was the matter with
him anyhow? he asked himself for the second time. Was he getting
maudlin? Not content with talking a strange girl to death he would put
on the finishing touch by kissing her. It was high time he was getting
back to the mountains!

He walked with her to the office, wishing with all his heart that the
blocks were each a mile long, and in his fear lest he miss a single word
she had to say he pushed divers pedestrians out of his way with so
little ceremony that only his size saved him from unpleasant
consequences.

It was incredible and absurd that he should find it so hard t