The girl looked up suddenly, a white spot in the centre of each cheek,
where the pressure of her thumbs had left its mark in the tender, pink
flesh.

"Improbable--yes!" she said, "but not impossible. Oh, I wish I could
believe otherwise, but I'm sure, I'm sure! Oh, John! You are so big, so
strong, so powerful now! Think of it--Lieutenant-Governor of Alleghenia!
You can do anything. And if he _is_ here in Kenton City, homeless, cold,
starving, you must find and help him--for me, Johnny boy, for me!"

The Lieutenant-Governor had risen, and was pacing up and down the room,
with his brows knit, and his strong, white hands chafing slowly against
each other, palm to palm. It seemed impossible, indeed! Spencer
Cavendish, the last of one of Alleghenia's proudest families; Spencer
Cavendish, the brilliant young society pet and sportsman; Spencer
Cavendish, the wit, the _viveur_--a beggar in the street? And yet--

The scandal of Cavendish's sudden and reckless plunge into sodden, open
dissipation, two years before, freshly called to Barclay's mind by
Natalie's words, had pointed to almost any finale, however debased,
however sordid. Barclay mentally invoked the face of his former friend,
as he had seen it on the occasion of their last meeting, flushed,
swollen-eyed, insolent, the fine patrician mouth hideously contorted and
maundering insults, filth, banality.

"And I did it!" the girl was saying. "Don't forget that, John.
Unwittingly, ignorantly, helplessly, if you will, I did it, just the
same. If I could have loved him, I could have saved him. As it was, I
had to send him away, and he has come to--to this! Oh, don't you see?
Don't you understand that something more than chance has crossed my path
with his, just at this moment of my supremest happiness, and of his
utter degradation? My duty is plain. It is to help him, to uplift him,
to make a man of him once more--to undo what I have done! I'm
responsible--and I'm helpless! What can I do? What can any girl do in
such a case? I can't go out into the streets and search for him. I can
only turn to you, Johnny boy, and rely upon your aid."

"But, Natalie dearest," said the Lieutenant-Governor slowly, "don't you
see that it is impossible, all this? I cannot allow such an affair to
come into your pure, sweet life, bringing with it the knowledge of the
depths to which men may fall, and the shadow of misery and degradation.
I cannot bear that, in even the remotest way, you should