" he said to Kingsley, taking her hand familiarly
and holding it until she withdrew it with a conscious touch of
embarrassment.

"She is one of my neighbors, and, by the way, Kingsley, she must have
the best place in the mill."

Kingsley continued to look sillily at her. He had not heard of
Helen--he did not understand.

"A place in the mill--ah, let me see," he said thoughtfully.

"I've been thinking it out," went on Travis, "and there is a
drawing-in machine ready for her. I understand Maggie is going to
quit on account of her health."

"I, ah--" began Kingsley--"Er--well, I never heard of a beginner
starting on a drawing-in machine."

"I have instructed Maggie to teach her," said Travis shortly. Then he
beckoned to Helen: "Come."

She followed Richard Travis through the mill. He watched her as she
stepped in among the common herd of people--the way at first in which
she threw up her head in splendid scorn. Never had he seen her so
beautiful. Never had he desired to own her so much as then.

"The exquisite, grand thing," he muttered. "And I shall--she shall be
mine."

Then her head sank again with a little crushed smile of helpless pity
and resignation. It touched even Travis, and he said, consolingly, to
her:

"You are too beautiful to have to do this and you shall not--for
long. You were born to be queen of--well, The Gaffs, eh?"

He laughed and then he touched boldly her hair which lay splendidly
around her temples.

She looked at him resignedly, then she flushed to her eyes and
followed him.

The drawer-in is to the loom what the architect is to the building.
And more--it is both architect and foundation, for as the threads are
drawn in so must the cloth be.

The work is tedious and requires skill, patience, quickness, and that
nicety of judgment which comes with intellect of a higher order than
is commonly found in the mill. For that reason the drawer-in is
removed from the noise of the main room--she sits with another
drawer-in in a quiet, little room nearby, and, with her trained
fingers, she draws in through the eyelets the threads, which set the
warp.

Maggie was busy, but she greeted him with a quaint, friendly little
smile. Helen noticed two things about her at once: that there was a
queer bright light in her eyes, and that beneath them glowed two
bright red spots, which, when Travis approached, deepened quickly.

"Yes, I am going to leave the mill," she said, after Travis had left
t