anger had evaporated and his chief emotion was dread lest
Scarborough might still be angry. "I want to take back----" he began
eagerly, as soon as his head was inside the door.

"I know you do, but you shan't," replied Scarborough. "What you said
was true, what Olivia said was true. I've been acting like a
blackguard."

"No," said Pierson, "what I said was a disgraceful lie. Will you try
to forget it, Scarborough?"

"FORGET it?" Scarborough looked at his friend with brilliant eyes.
"Never! So help me God, never! It's one of three things that have
occurred to-day that I must never forget."

"Then we can go on as before. You'll still be my friend?"

"Not STILL, Fred, but for the first time."

He looked round the luxurious study with a laugh and a sigh. "It'll be
a ghastly job, getting used to the sort of surroundings I can earn for
myself. But I've got to grin and bear it. We'll stay on here together
to the end of the term--my share's paid, and besides, I'm not going to
do anything sensational. Next year--we'll see."

While Pierson was having his final cigarette before going to bed he
looked up from his book to see before him Scarborough, even more
tremendous and handsome in his gaudy pajamas.

"I wish to register a solemn vow," said he, with mock solemnity that
did not hide the seriousness beneath. "Hear me, ye immortal gods!
Never again, never again, will I engage in any game with a friend where
there is a stake. I don't wish to tempt. I don't wish to be tempted."

"What nonsense!" said Pierson. "You're simply cutting yourself off
from a lot of fun."

"I have spoken," said Scarborough, and he withdrew to his bedroom.
When the door was closed and the light out he paused at the edge of the
bed and said: "And never again, so long as he wishes to retain his
title to the name man, will Hampden Scarborough take from anybody
anything which he hasn't honestly earned."

And when he was in bed he muttered: "I shall be alone, and I may stay
poor and obscure, but I'll get back my self-respect--and keep
it--Pauline!"

X.

MRS. JOHN DUMONT.

And Pauline?--She was now looking back upon the first year of her
married life.

She had been so brought up that at seventeen, within a few weeks of
eighteen, she had only the vaguest notion of the meaning of the step
she was about to take in "really marrying" John Dumont. Also, it had
never occurred to her as possible for a properly constituted woman not