companion's changed
expression.

"And your model gave us away?"

"I beg pardon?" Thornly drew himself together; "what did you say?"

"I said, your model, the Pimpernel, told you? It must have given the
little thing a bad half hour to be found out."

"It killed her childhood," the young man returned; "it died hard, and it
wasn't pleasant for me to witness, but, thank God, the woman in her
saved her soul from utter annihilation. Somehow, I have always wanted
you and Katharine to know this."

"Thank you. You have told Katharine?"

"No, I'm leaving to-morrow. I'm going to tell Katharine to-morrow night.
I waited for her to speak first to me; I hoped she would to the last.
All might have been different if she only had."

"Perhaps Katharine is generous enough to forgive you unheard?" ventured
Devant.

"No woman has a right to forgive a man in such a case, if she suspects
what Katharine did!" The keen eyes drew together darkly.

"How do you know what Katharine thought, Dick?" The older man was
growing anxious.

"A woman thinks only one thing, when she strikes that kind of a blow,
Mr. Devant. The effect of the blow upon the object was proof enough of
its character. I happened to be in at the death, you know."

"Dick, you're a man of the world; this sort of sentiment is not worthy
of your intelligence. Katharine is a loving girl and naturally a bit
jealous of you and your dissecting room. You must realize she had cause
for surprise that day? Why, the little devil looked like a siren and the
bare feet in the net were breathtaking. I think, under all the
circumstances, for Katharine to overlook it in silence proves her a
large-hearted woman."

"Or an indifferent, determined one!"

"Dick!"

"I feel rather more deeply, Mr. Devant, than you have, perhaps,
imagined. This means much to me. I have never had but one ideal of
womanhood that I have cared to bring into my inner life. My mother set
my standard high."

"Your mother was an unusual woman, my boy."

"The unusual is what I have always admired."

"You are too young to be so unelastic."

"I'm too young to forego my ideal, Mr. Devant."

Presently Saxton entered the room with a tray of glasses and a bottle.
After he was gone, Mr. Devant took up the subject anxiously.

"I was your father's friend, Dick, your mother's too, for that matter. I
do not want you to do a mad thing in the heat of resentment. Katharine
Ogden is a rare woman, a woman who will be the