receded from Arkwright's
face, leaving it very white; but if Alice saw it, she paid no heed.)
"Everybody says you are. Then to come here like this, on the sly, when
you know he can't be here, I--Oh, can't you see what you're doing?"

There was a moment's pause, then Arkwright spoke. A deep pain looked
from his eyes. He was still very pale, and his mouth had settled into
sad lines.

"I think, perhaps, it may be just as well if I tell you what I _am_
doing--or, rather, trying to do," he said quietly.

Then he told her.

"And so you see," he added, when he had finished the tale, "I haven't
really accomplished much, after all, and it seems the little I have
accomplished has only led to my being misjudged by you, my best friend."

Alice gave a sobbing cry. Her face was scarlet. Horror, shame, and
relief struggled for mastery in her countenance.

"Oh, but I didn't know, I didn't know," she moaned, twisting her hands
nervously. "And now, when you've been so brave, so true--for me to
accuse you of--Oh, can you _ever_ forgive me? But you see, knowing that
you _did_ care for her, it did look--" She choked into silence, and
turned away her head.

He glanced at her tenderly, mournfully.

"Yes," he said, after a minute, in a low voice. "I can see how it did
look; and so I'm going to tell you now something I had meant never to
tell you. There really couldn't have been anything in that, you see,
for I found out long ago that it was gone--whatever love there had been
for--Billy."

"But your--tiger skin!"

"Oh, yes, I thought it was alive," smiled Arkwright, sadly, "when I
asked you to help me fight it. But one day, very suddenly, I discovered
that it was nothing but a dead skin of dreams and memories. But I made
another discovery, too. I found that just beyond lay another one, and
that was very much alive."

"Another one?" Alice turned to him in wonder. "But you never asked me to
help you fight--that one!"

He shook his head.

"No; I couldn't, you see. You couldn't have helped me. You'd only have
hindered me."

"Hindered you?"

"Yes. You see, it was my love for--you, that I was fighting--then."

Alice gave a low cry and flushed vividly; but Arkwright hurried on, his
eyes turned away.

"Oh, I understand. I know. I'm not asking for--anything. I heard some
time ago of your engagement to Calderwell. I've tried many times to
say the proper, expected pretty speeches, but--I couldn't. I will
now, though. I do. You hav