, that if I had gained
you I should have gained all that I tried to gain."

She went red.

"It was horrid of me, wasn't it?" she confessed. "And yet that idea came
to me. One cannot control one's thoughts, Frank, and you must be content
to know that I believe in your innocence. There are some thoughts which
flourish in one's mind like weeds, and which refuse to be uprooted.
Don't blame me if I recalled the lawyer's words; it was an involuntary,
hateful thought."

He inclined his head.

"There is another thought which is not involuntary," she went on, "and
it is because I want to retain our friendship and I want everything to
go on as usual that I am asking you one question. Your twenty-fourth
birthday has come and gone; you told me that your uncle's design was to
keep you unmarried until that day. You are still unmarried, and your
twenty-fourth birthday has passed. What has happened?"

"Many things have happened," he replied quietly. "My uncle is dead. I am
a rich man apart from the accident of his legacy. I could meet you on
level terms."

"I knew nothing of this," she said quickly.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Didn't Jasper tell you?" he asked.

"No--Jasper told me nothing."

Frank drew a long breath.

"Then I can only say that until the mystery of my uncle's death is
solved you cannot know," he said. "I can only repeat what I have already
told you."

She offered her hand.

"I believe you, Frank," she said, "and I was wrong even to doubt you in
the smallest degree."

He took her hand and held it.

"May," he said, "what is this strange fascination that Jasper has over
you?"

For the second time in that interview she flushed and pulled her hand
back.

"There is nothing unusual in the fascination which Jasper exercises,"
she smiled, quickly recovering, almost against her will, from the little
twinge of anger she felt. "It is the influence which every woman has
felt and which you one day will feel."

He laughed bitterly.

"Then nothing will make you change your mind?" he said.

"Nothing in the world," she answered emphatically.

For a moment she was sorry for him, as he stood, both hands resting on a
chair, his eyes on the ground, a picture of despair, and she crossed to
him and slipped her arm through his.

"Don't take it so badly, Frank," she said softly. "I am a capricious,
foolish girl, I know, and I am really not worth a moment's suffering."

He shook himself together, gathered up hi