Helen Massie held a
bunch of the tall crimson spikes, and Dick thought as he watched her with
a beating heart that she was like the flowers. They were splendid in form
and color, but there was nothing soft or delicate in their aggressive
beauty. Helen's hair was dark and her color high, her black eyes were
bright, and her yellow dress showed a finely outlined form. Dick knew
that she was proud, resolute, and self-confident.

Then she turned her head and saw him, and he knew that she had heard of
his disgrace, for her color deepened and her glance was rather hard than
sympathetic. The hand that held the flowers dropped to her side, but she
waited until he came up.

"I see you know, and it doesn't matter who told you," he said. "I felt I
had to come before I went away."

"Yes," she answered calmly, "I heard. You have courage, Dick; but perhaps
a note would have been enough, and more considerate."

Dick wondered gloomily whether she meant that he might have saved her
pain by staying away, or that he had involved her in his disgrace by
coming, since his visit would be talked about. He reflected bitterly that
the latter was more probable.

"Well," he said, "we have been pretty good friends and I'm leaving the
country. I don't suppose I shall come back again."

"When do you go?"

"Now," said Dick. "I must catch the train at noon."

Helen's manner did not encourage any indulgence in sentiment and he half
resented this, although it made things easier. He could not say he had
come to give her up, because there had been no formal engagement. Still
he had expected some sign of pity or regret.

"You don't defend yourself," she remarked thoughtfully. "Couldn't you
have fought it out?"

"There was nothing to fight for. I lost the papers I was trusted with;
one can't get over that."

"But people may imagine you did something worse." She paused for a moment
and added: "Don't you care what I might think?"

Dick looked at her steadily. "You ought to know. Do you believe it's
possible I stole and meant to sell the plans?"

"No," she said with a touch of color. "But I would have liked you, for
your friends' sake, to try to clear yourself. If you had lost the papers,
they would have been found and sent back; as they were not, it looks as
if you had been robbed."

That she could reason this out calmly struck Dick as curious, although he
had long known that Helen was ruled by her brain and not her heart.

"I've been careles