ng him. A man likes that
better."

It would be impossible to describe Alice's feelings, as they just then
rose like a whirling storm in her heart. She was humiliated, she was
indignant, she was abashed; she wanted to break forth with a tempest of
denial, self-vindication, resentment; she wanted to cry with her face
hidden in her hands. What she did was to stand helplessly gazing at
Clark, with two or three bright tears on either cheek, her hands
clenched, her eyes flashing. She was going to say some wild thing; but
she did not; her voice lodged fast in her throat. She moved her lips,
unable to make a sound.

Two of Clark's officers relieved the situation by coming up to get
orders about some matter of town government, and Alice scarcely knew
how she made her way home. Every vein in her body was humming like a
bee when she entered the house and flung herself into a chair.

She heard Madame Roussillon and Father Beret chatting in the kitchen,
whence came a fragrance of broiling buffalo steak besprinkled with
garlic. It was Father Beret's favorite dish, wherefore his tongue ran
freely--almost as freely as that of his hostess, and when he heard
Alice come in, he called gayly to her through the kitchen door:

"Come here, ma fille, and lend us old folks your appetite; nous avons
une tranche a la Bordelaise!"

"I am not hungry," she managed to say, "you can eat it without me."

The old man's quick ears caught the quaver of trouble in her voice,
much as she tried to hide it. A moment later he was standing beside her
with his hand on her head.

"What is the matter now, little one?" he tenderly demanded. "Tell your
old Father."

She began to cry, laying her face in her crossed arms, the tears
gushing, her whole frame aquiver, and heaving great sobs. She seemed to
shrink like a trodden flower. It touched Father Beret deeply.

He suspected that Beverley's departure might be the cause of her
trouble; but when presently she told him what had taken place in the
fort, he shook his head gravely and frowned.

"Colonel Clark was right, my daughter," he said after a short silence,
"and it is time for you to ponder well upon the significance of his
words. You can't always be a wilful, headstrong little girl, running
everywhere and doing just as you please. You have grown to be a woman
in stature--you must be one in fact. You know I told you at first to be
careful how you acted with--"

"Father, dear old Father!" she cried, spr