certainly be a different world."

It was a relief to Aline to talk, to put into words the external
skeleton facts of the surging current that had engulfed her existence
since she had turned a corner upon this unexpected consciousness of
life running strong and deep. Harley was not a confidant she could have
chosen under the most favorable circumstances, and her instinct told
her that in this matter he was particularly impossible. But to Virginia
Balfour--Mrs. Mott had to leave early to preside over the Mesa Woman's
Club, and her friend allowed herself to be persuaded to stay
longer--she did not find it at all hard to talk. Indeed, she murmured
into the sympathetic ear of this astute young searcher of hearts more
than her words alone said, with the result that Virginia guessed what
she herself had not yet quite found out, though her heart was hovering
tremblingly on the brink of discovery.

But Virginia's sympathy for the trouble fate had in store for this
helpless innocent consisted with an alert appreciation of its obvious
relation to herself. What she meant to discover was the attitude toward
the situation of one neither particularly innocent nor helpless. Was
he, too, about to be "caught in the coil of a God's romances," or was
he merely playing on the vibrating strings of an untaught heart?

It was in part to satisfy this craving for knowledge that she wrote
Ridgway a note as soon as she reached home. It said:

MY DEAR RECREANT LAGGARD: If you are not too busy playing Sir Lancelot
to fair dames in distress, or splintering lances with the doughty
husbands of these same ladies, I pray you deign to allow your servant
to feast her eyes upon her lord's face. Hopefully and gratefully yours,
VIRGINIA.

P. S.--Have you forgotten, sir, that I have not seen you since that
terrible blizzard and your dreadful imprisonment in Fort Salvation?

P. P. S.--I have seen somebody else, though. She's a dear, and full of
your praises. I hardly blame you.

V.

She thought that ought to bring him soon, and it did.

"I've been busy night and day," he apologized when they met.

Virginia gave him a broadside demurely.

"I suppose your social duties do take up a good deal of your time."

"My social duties? Oh, I see!" He laughed appreciation of her hit.
Evidently through her visit she knew a good deal more than he had
expected. Since he had nothing to hide from her except his feelings,
this did not displease him. "My duties