remembered that he had some business
to attend to, while Mrs. Forel went away, as she explained, to instruct
the Chinese cook, and Alice Deringham was left face to face with a task
that now appeared almost impossible. She could not commence it
directly.

"And now I want you to tell me all about Somasco," she said.

Alton leaned with his back against a pillar looking down on her, and
the girl, who lay in a long chair, wished that she had chosen a
position where the light did not fall so directly upon her. That was
in one respect curious, because she had taken considerable pains with
her toilet, and knew that the sweeping lines of the long black dress
became her. Its sombreness also emphasized the ivory whiteness of her
neck and hands, while the pallor and weariness of her face awoke a
tenderness that was far more than pity in the man. He caught the glint
of the lustrous red-gold hair as she moved her head a trifle, and then
turned his eyes away with a little restless movement that did not
escape his companion.

"We may hold the mine after all," he said.

"Yes?" said Alice Deringham, with an evident eagerness which puzzled
him. "That is very good news. And your other difficulties? You see,
I made Mr. Forel talk about them occasionally."

The interest that this implied was not lost upon the man, but he
glanced away again.

"They are less than they were," he said gravely. "Still, I don't know
that you would care to hear about these things."

"That is not very friendly," said Alice Deringham, with a little smile.

Alton glanced down at her in swift surprise, and then his face became a
mask again. "Well," he said slowly, "when I think we would have been
beaten without it, somebody lent us enough dollars to carry us through.
It sounds very simple, but it has made a new man of me. To have
dragged down all the men who trusted me would have hurt me horribly."

"And this loan or whatever it is will prevent that happening? It was
opportune?"

"Yes," and a little glow came into Alton's eyes. "It was very
opportune."

"You were not so laconic at the ranch," said the girl, who smiled at
him. "Once upon a time you would tell me all about your plans."

The man seemed to quiver as he met her gaze, and then slowly
straightened himself. "I have been taught a good deal since then and
know what an egotistical fool I was," he said. "Still, this loan makes
too great a difference to me to be expressed in words. Yo