choose him," answered the girl without hesitation.

"Why?"

"Because--"

"After all, is n't that enough? You would trust him to fight an
eternity as he has fought for you these few days. Twice he staked his
life for you--once his good name."

"But he thought he was soon to die."

"All the more precious the time that was left."

Her eyes brightened.

"Yes. Yes. I had not thought of that."

"Yet he did this and further risked what was left to save an unknown
messenger boy."

"Oh, he did well!"

"Then he came to you like a man and told what you might never have
discovered, just because he wished to stand clean before you."

"Yes," she breathed.

"Why did he do that?" demanded her reflection.

"I--I don't know."

"Why did he do that?"

"Because--"

"After all, isn't that enough?"

"But he said nothing. If only he had turned back!"

"What right had he to say the thing you wish? If he had been less a
man he _would_ have turned back."

"Where has he gone? What is he going to do?"

"Why don't you find out?"

"It would be unmaidenly."

"Yes, and very womanly. Do you owe him nothing?"

"I owe him everything."

"Then--"

"I must send Ben to find him. I must--oh, but I need n't do anything
more?"

"No. Nothing more."

Her heart pounded in her throat in her eagerness to finish her toilet.
Her fingers were so light that she could scarcely hold her comb. She
hurried into a fresh gown and then down-stairs where she found Ben
anxiously pacing the library. He appeared greatly agitated--anchorless.

"Ben," she began, "I had no right to allow Peter Donaldson to go away
as I did."

"Little sister," he demanded, "was he unkind to you?"

"No. No," she broke in eagerly, "he was most generous with me. But
for the moment I could n't see it. It was my fault that he went."

"But what was the cause of it?" he insisted, puzzled and dazed by the
whole episode.

"It was nothing that counts now. I want you to promise me, Ben, that
you will never refer to it, that you will never permit him to tell you
of it."

His face cleared.

"Just a little tiff? But he took it hard. I never saw a man so worked
up over anything."

"It belongs to the past," she hurried on, eager to allow it to pass as
he interpreted it. "It would be cruel to him to bring it up again.
Will you promise me, Ben?"

"I will promise. But I 'm afraid you overdid it. It is going to be
hard to straighten him out."

"N