er lost its meed of elegance. The pallor of her
cheeks, which might have seemed like an inheritance of fragility, was
counteracted by the softness of her skin and the healthy colour of her
curving lips. She bore his scrutiny so impersonally, with such sweet and
challenging interest, that he persisted in it. Her brown hair was almost
troublesome in its prodigality. There were little curls about her neck
which defied restraint. Her cool muslin gown, even to his untutored
perceptions, revealed a distinction which the first dressmaker in London
had endorsed. She spoke the words of lifelessness, yet she possessed
everything which men desire.

"The tragedy with you," he pronounced, "is the absence of affection in
your life."

"Do you think that I haven't the power for caring?" she asked quietly.

"I think that you have had no one to care for," he answered. "I think
there has been no one to care for you in the way you wanted--but those
days are over."

For the first time she showed some signs of that faint and growing
uneasiness in his presence which brought with it a peculiar and nameless
joy. Her eyes failed to meet the challenge of his. She glanced at the
clock and changed the subject abruptly.

"Do you know that I have been here all this time," she reminded him, "and
we have not said a word about our campaign."

"There is a great deal connected with it, or rather my side of it," he
declared, "which I shall never tell you."

"You trust me?" she asked a little timidly, "You don't think that I
should betray you to my husband?"

He laughed the idea to scorn.

"It isn't that," he assured her. "The machinery I have knocked into shape
is crude in its way, but the lives and liberty of those underneath depend
upon its workings."

"It sounds mysterious," she confessed.

"If you say that it is to be an alliance, Josephine," he decided, "it
shall be. I need your help enormously, but you must make up your mind,
before you say the last word, to run a certain measure of risk."

"What risk is there for me to run?" she asked, with a smile of
confidence. "What measure of unhappiness could be crowded into my life
which is not already there? I insist upon it--John--that you accept me as
an ally without any more hesitation."

He bent and kissed her hands.

"This, then, is final," he said. "Within the next twenty-four hours you
will be ready if necessary?"

"I am ready now--any time--always," she promised him.

CHAPTE