ly as I think well, don't you know, without the
counsel or coercion of any clergyman."

There was a short silence, and then John Storm said quietly: "It is no
worse than I expected. But I had to hear it from your own lips, and I
have heard it. Good-day."

He went back to the hospital and asked for Glory. She was banished with
Polly to the housekeeper's room. Polly was catching flies on the window
(which overlooked the park) and humming, "Sigh no more, ladies." Glory's
eyes were red with weeping. John drew Glory aside.

"I have written to Mrs. Callender, and she will be here presently," he
said.

"It is useless," said Glory. "Polly will refuse to go. She expects Lord
Robert to come for her, and she wants me to call on Mr. Drake."

"But I have seen the man myself."

"Lord Robert?"

"Yes. He will do nothing."

"Nothing!"

"Nothing, or worse than nothing."

"Impossible!"

"Nothing of that kind is impossible to men like those."

"They are not so bad as that though, and even if Lord Robert is all you
say, Mr. Drake----"

"They are friends and housemates, Glory, and what the one is the other
must be also."

"Oh, no. Mr. Drake is quite a different person."

"Don't be misled, my child. If there were any real difference between
them----"

"But there is; and if a girl were in trouble or wanted help in
anything----"

"He would drop her, Glory, like an old lottery ticket that has drawn a
blank and is done for."

She was biting her lip, and it was bleeding slightly.

"You dislike Mr. Drake," she said, "and that is why you can not be just
to him. But he is always praising and excusing you, and when any one----"

"His praises and excuses are nothing to me. I am not thinking of myself.
I am thinking----"

He had a look of intense excitement, and his speaking was abrupt and
disconnected.

"You were splendid this morning, Glory, and when I think of the girl who
defied that Pharisee, being perhaps herself the victim--The man asked me
what my standing was, as if that--But if I had really had a right, if the
girl had been anything to me, if she had been somebody else and not a
light, shallow, worthless creature, do you know what I should have said
to him? 'Since things have gone so far, sir, you must marry the girl
now, and keep to her and be faithful to her, and love her, or else I----"

"You are flushed and excited, and there is something I do not
understand----"

"Promise me, Glory, that you will break of