ity, I
repented, and I resolved to give up all thought of Clarence Vaughan. I
did give him up.

"But, Claire, although I did not know it, my very penitence must have
committed me, and while I was renouncing my designs, you were
resolving to further them. In some manner I must have betrayed
myself."

There is a moment's pause. Claire Keith's face is buried in her hands,
and Madeline, bending toward her, cries out, remorsefully:

"Claire! Claire! Look up and believe me. As God hears me, that is past
and dead. See how I am humbling myself, and do not doubt me."

Claire's head rears itself suddenly. She flings herself forward
impetuously, and clasps her arms about her friend.

"Madeline, stop!" she cries, brokenly; "I won't hear you slander
yourself. Don't I know you too well to doubt you! But I won't have a
lover; I won't love any one but you."

Again the laugh comes to Madeline's lips.

"Little Miss Impulse!" she says, tenderly. "But, sister Claire, I am
not done yet. I am going to put you on the penitent's stool now. Just
imagine yourself in my place for a little. Do you think I could have
made this confession to you if my weakness were not a thing of the
past? You know I never could. I am not ashamed to confess that I did
love Clarence. But I should be more than ashamed, under all the
circumstances, if I could not say with truth that that love is a thing
of the past. As my dearest friend, my brother, if you will, I shall
always love him; but no more than that. I am not sorry that I have
loved him, for I am a better woman because of it. But, I repeat it,
that love is a thing of the past. Claire, do you not believe?"

They gaze into each other's eyes for a moment. Then Claire says: "I
believe, Madeline."

A smile brightens the brown eyes now, and their owner says: "Then
don't you see that you have made a mistake--one that, for my sake, you
must rectify?"

Claire begins to look rebellious. "No, I don't," she cries, blushing
scarlet. "You wicked girl, you have been getting me into a trap!"

Madeline says, very gravely:

"Claire, I want you to trust me in this, as you all have in other
things. I want you to let me feel that I have not made the friends I
love best, unhappy. I shall leave you soon: if I have been your
friend, let me have my way in this one thing. If you don't, all the
rest will have been in vain. See, my drama is ended; my enemies are
punished. Now let me make my dear ones happy. Do you know, J