ce paled a little, "why do you speak of her?"

"I know, if you do not, Max," she answered, and smiled at him. "I have
learned several things since I came here, and one of them is Mr. Haydon's
reason for encouraging our friendship so much. It was to end any
attachment between you and Margaret. Oh, I know, Max! If I had not looked
just a little bit like her, you would never have fancied you loved me--for
it was only a fancy."

"It was no fancy! I did love you. I was honest with you, and I have waited
patiently, while you have grown more and more distant until now--"

"Now we had better end it all, Max. I could not make you happy, for I am
not happy myself."

"Perhaps I--"

"No, you can not help me; and it is not your fault. You have been good to
me--very good; but I can't marry any one."

"No one?" he asked, looking at her doubtfully. "'Tana, sometimes I have
fancied you might have cared for some one else--some one before you met
me."

"No, I cared for no one before I met you," she answered, slowly. "But I
could not be happy in the social life of your people here. They are
charming, but I am not suited to their life. And--and I can't go back to
the hills. So, in a month, I am going to Italy."

"You have it all decided, then?"

"All--don't be angry, Max. You will thank me for it some day, though I
know our friends will think badly of me just now."

"No, they shall not; you are breaking no promises. You took me only on
trial, and it seems I don't suit," he said, with a grimace. "I will see
that you are not blamed. And so long as you do not leave America, I should
like you to remain here. Don't let anything be changed in our friendship,
'Tana."

She turned to him with tears in her eyes, and held out her hand.

"You are too good to me, Max," she said, brokenly, "God knows what will
become of me when I leave you all and go among foreign faces, among whom I
shall not have a friend. I hope to work and--be contented; but I shall
never meet a friend like you again."

He drew her to him quickly.

"Don't go!" he whispered, pleadingly. "I can't let you go out into the
world alone like that! I will love you--care for you--"

"Hush!" and she put her hand on his face to push it away; "it is no use,
and don't do that--try to kiss me; you must not. No man has ever kissed
me, and you--"

"And I sha'n't be the first," he added, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, I
confess I hoped to be, and you are a greater temptation than