delight; the chattering of the squirrels, and Caesar's pranks in the
snow. She had neglected her pets. She had neglected her work, her
friends, the boys' lessons; and her brother. For what? What would
her girl friends say? That she was pining for a lover who had
forgotten her. They would say that and it would be true. She did
think of him constantly.

With bitter pain she recalled the first days of the acquaintance
which now seemed so long past; how much she had disliked Alfred; how
angry she had been with him and how contemptuously she had spurned
his first proffer of friendship; how, little by little, her pride
had been subdued; then the struggle with her heart. And, at last,
after he had gone, came the realization that the moments spent with
him had been the sweetest of her life. She thought of him as she
used to see him stand before her; so good to look at; so strong and
masterful, and yet so gentle.

"Oh, I cannot bear it," whispered Betty with a half sob, giving up
to a rush of tender feeling. "I love him. I love him, and I cannot
forget him. Oh, I am so ashamed."

Betty bowed her head on her knees. Her slight form quivered a while
and then grew still. When a half hour later she raised her head her
face was pale and cold. It bore the look of a girl who had suddenly
become a woman; a woman who saw the battle of life before her and
who was ready to fight. Stern resolve gleamed from her flashing
eyes; there was no faltering in those set lips.

Betty was a Zane and the Zanes came of a fighting race. Their blood
had ever been hot and passionate; the blood of men quick to love and
quick to hate. It had flowed in the veins of daring, reckless men
who had fought and died for their country; men who had won their
sweethearts with the sword; men who had had unconquerable spirits.
It was this fighting instinct that now rose in Betty; it gave her
strength and pride to defend her secret; the resolve to fight
against the longing in her heart.

"I will forget him! I will tear him out of my heart!" she exclaimed
passionately. "He never deserved my love. He did not care. I was a
little fool to let him amuse himself with me. He went away and
forgot. I hate him."

At length Betty subdued her excitement, and when she went down to
supper a few minutes later she tried to maintain a cheerful
composure of manner and to chat with her old-time vivacity.

"Bessie, I am sure you have exaggerated things," remarked Col. Zane
after Be