fe!"

"And no more Newport for either of us," he muttered half audibly to
himself with a tone of regret.

Alice looked up at him, her white hands clenched.

"I won't have it!" she exclaimed hotly; "I simply won't have it. I
should die in a place like that. Buried," she went on bitterly, "among
a lot of country bumpkins! Sam's a fool!"

"And you believe him to be in earnest?" he asked at length. She made
no reply; her flushed cheeks again sunk in her jewelled hands. "Do
you, seriously?" he demanded with sudden fear.

"Yes--very much in earnest--that's the worst of it," she returned,
with set, trembling lips.

For some moments he watched her in silence, she breathing in nervous
gasps, her slippered feet pressed hard in the soft rug. A sudden
desire rushed through him to take her in his arms, yet he dared not
risk it.

"Come," he said, at last, "let us reason this thing out. We're neither
of us fools. Besides, it does not seem possible he will dare carry out
anything in life without your consent."

"I don't know," she answered slowly. "I never believed him capable
of going to the woods--but he did. And I must say, frankly, I never
believed him capable of this."

"You and he have had a quarrel--am I not right?"

She shrugged her shoulders in reply.

"Perhaps," she confessed--"but he has never understood me--he is
incapable of understanding any woman."

"Quite true," he replied lightly, in his best worldly voice; "quite
true. Few men, my dear child, ever understand the women they marry.
You might have been free to-day--free, and happier, had you--"

He sprang to his feet, bending over her--clasping her hands clenched
in her lap. Slowly he sought her lips.

"Don't," she breathed--"don't--I beg of you. You must not--you _shall_
not! You know we have discussed all that before."

"Forgive me," said he, straightening and regaining his seat. The ice
had been thinner than he supposed, and he was too much of an expert
to risk breaking through. "But why are you so cold to me?" he asked
gloomily, with a sullen glance; "you, whose whole nature is the
reverse? Do you know you are gloriously beautiful--you, whom I
have always regarded as a woman of the world, seem to have suddenly
developed the conscience of a schoolgirl."

"You said you would help me," she replied, ignoring his outburst, her
eyes averted as if fearing to meet his gaze.

"Then tell me you trust me," he returned, leaning toward her.

She raised her