he way at all."

Still, now that he had said this, strong thoughts of her were in his
mind. And despite his involved social and financial position, which he
now recalled, it was interesting to him to see how deliberately and even
calculatingly--and worse, enthusiastically--he was pumping the bellows
that tended only to heighten the flames of his desire for this girl; to
feed a fire that might ultimately consume him--and how deliberately and
resourcefully!

Aileen toyed aimlessly with her fan as a black-haired, thin-faced young
law student talked to her, and seeing Norah in the distance she asked to
be allowed to run over to her.

"Oh, Aileen," called Norah, "I've been looking for you everywhere. Where
have you been?"

"Dancing, of course. Where do you suppose I've been? Didn't you see me
on the floor?"

"No, I didn't," complained Norah, as though it were most essential that
she should. "How late are you going to stay?"

"Until it's over, I suppose. I don't know."

"Owen says he's going at twelve."

"Well, that doesn't matter. Some one will take me home. Are you having a
good time?"

"Fine. Oh, let me tell you. I stepped on a lady's dress over there, last
dance. She was terribly angry. She gave me such a look."

"Well, never mind, honey. She won't hurt you. Where are you going now?"

Aileen always maintained a most guardian-like attitude toward her
sister.

"I want to find Callum. He has to dance with me next time. I know what
he's trying to do. He's trying to get away from me. But he won't."

Aileen smiled. Norah looked very sweet. And she was so bright. What
would she think of her if she knew? She turned back, and her fourth
partner sought her. She began talking gayly, for she felt that she had
to make a show of composure; but all the while there was ringing in her
ears that definite question of his, "You like me, don't you?" and her
later uncertain but not less truthful answer, "Yes, of course I do."

Chapter XIX

The growth of a passion is a very peculiar thing. In highly organized
intellectual and artistic types it is so often apt to begin with
keen appreciation of certain qualities, modified by many, many mental
reservations. The egoist, the intellectual, gives but little of himself
and asks much. Nevertheless, the lover of life, male or female, finding
himself or herself in sympathetic accord with such a nature, is apt to
gain much.

Cowperwood was innately and primarily an egoist an