hile the two women overwhelmed Hazel with a flood
of exclamations and questions, and extended his hand. Hazel accepted
the overture. She had long since gotten over her resentment against
him. She was furthermore amazed to find that she could meet his eye
and take his hand without a single flutter of her pulse. It seemed
strange, but she was glad of it. And, indeed, she was too much taken
up with Loraine Marsh's chatter, and too genuinely glad to hear a
friendly voice again, to dwell much on ghosts of the past.

They stood a few minutes on the corner; then Mrs. Marsh proposed that
they go to the hotel, where they could talk at their leisure and in
comfort. Loraine and her mother took the lead. Barrow naturally fell
into step with Hazel.

"I've been wearing sackcloth and ashes, Hazel," he said humbly. "And I
guess you've got about a million apologies coming from everybody in
Granville for the shabby way they treated you. Shortly after you left,
somebody on one of the papers ferreted out the truth of that Bush
affair, and the vindictive old hound's reasons for that compromising
legacy were set forth. It seems this newspaper fellow connected up
with Bush's secretary and the nurse. Also, Bush appears to have kept a
diary--and kept it posted up to the day of his death--poured out all
his feelings on paper, and repeatedly asserted that he would win you or
ruin you. And it seems that that night after you refused to come to
him when he was hurt, he called in his lawyer and made that
codicil--and spent the rest of the time till he died gloating over the
chances of it besmirching your character."

"I've grown rather indifferent about it," Hazel replied impersonally.
"But he succeeded rather easily. Even you, who should have known me
better, were ready to believe the very worst."

"I've paid for it," Barrow pleaded. "You don't know how I've hated
myself for being such a cad. But it taught me a lesson--if you'll not
hold a grudge against me. I've wondered and worried about you,
disappearing the way you did. Where have you been, and how have you
been getting on? You surely look well." He bent an admiring glance on
her.

"Oh, I've been every place, and I can't complain about not getting on,"
she answered carelessly.

For the life of her, she could not help making comparisons between the
man beside her and another who she guessed would by now be bearing up
to the crest of the divide that overlooked the green a