elf to the wall. "I know it's about him." Then she came and
crouched on the tiger-skin at Cornelia's feet, and clasped her hands
around her knees, and fixed her averted face on the blazing pine. "Now
go on," she said, as if she had arranged the pose to her perfect
satisfaction.

Cornelia went on. "It's about him, and it's about some one else, too,"
and she had no pity on herself in telling Charmian all about that
early, shabby affair with Dickerson.

"I knew it," said Charmian, with a sigh of utter content, "I _told_
you, the first time I saw you, that _you_ had lived. Well: and has
he--turned up?"

"He has turned up--three times," said Cornelia.

Charmian shivered with enjoyment of the romantic situation. She reached
a hand behind her and tried to clutch one of Cornelia's but had to get
on without it. "And well: have they met?"

"No, they haven't," said Cornelia crossly, but not so much with
Charmian as with the necessity she was now in of telling her about her
last meeting with Ludlow. She began, "They almost did," and when
Charmian in the intensity of her interest could not keep turning around
to stare at her, Cornelia took hold of her head and turned her face
toward the fire again. Then she went on to tell how it had all
happened. She did not spare herself at any point, and she ended the
story with the expression of her belief that she had deserved it all.
"It wasn't boxing that little wretch's ears that was the disgrace; it
was having brought myself to where I _had_ to box them."

"Yes, that was it," sighed Charmian, with deep conviction.

"And I had to tell _him_ that I could never care for him, because I
couldn't bear to tell him what a fool I had been."

"No, no; you never could do that!"

"And I couldn't bear to have him think I was better than I really was,
or let him care for me unless I told him all about that miserable old
affair."

"No, _you_ couldn't, Cornelia," said Charmian solemnly. "_Some_ girls
might; _most_ girls _would_. They would just consider it a flirtation,
and not say anything about it, or not till after they were engaged, and
then just laugh. But you are different from other girls--you are so
_true_! Yes, you would have to tell it if it killed you; I can see
that; and you couldn't tell it, and you had to break his heart. Yes,
you _had_ to!"

"Oh, Charmian Maybough! How cruel you are!" Cornelia flung herself
forward and cried; Charmian whirled round, and kneeling before her,
th