t of it beyond the amiable, free and easy lover of a
jolly good time that is the type repeated over and over again
among the youth of the comfortable classes that send their sons
to college.

"Are you going with her?" he asked.

"No," said Susan.

Redmond's face fell. "I hoped you liked me a little better than
that," said he.

"It isn't a question of you."

"But it's a question of _you_ with me," he cried. "I'm in love
with you, Lorna. I'm--I'm tempted to say all sorts of crazy
things that I think but haven't the courage to act on." He
kneeled down beside her, put his arms round her waist. "I'm
crazy about you, Lorna. . . . Tell me---- Were you---- Had
you been--before we met?"

"Yes," said Susan.

"Why don't you deny it?" he exclaimed. "Why don't you fool me,
as Etta fooled Gus?"

"Etta's story is different from mine," said Susan. "She's had no
experience at all, compared to me."

"I don't believe it," declared he. "I know she's been stuffing
Fatty, has made him think that you led her away. But I can soon
knock those silly ideas out of his silly head----"

"It's the truth," interrupted Susan, calmly.

"No matter. You could be a good woman." Impulsively, "If you'll
settle down and be a good woman, I'll marry you."

Susan smiled gently. "And ruin your prospects?"

"I don't care for prospects beside you. You _are_ a good
woman--inside. The better I know you the less like a fast woman
you are. Won't you go to work, Lorna, and wait for me?"

Her smile had a little mockery in it now--perhaps to hide from
him how deeply she was moved. "No matter what else I did, I'd
not wait for you, Johnny. You'd never come. You're not a
Johnny-on-the-spot."

"You think I'm weak--don't you?" he said. Then, as she did not
answer, "Well, I am. But I love you, all the same."

For the first time he felt that he had touched her heart. The
tears sprang to her eyes, which were not at all gray now but all
violet, as was their wont when she was deeply moved. She laid
her hands on his shoulders. "Oh, it's so good to be loved!" she
murmured.

He put his arms around her, and for the moment she rested there,
content--yes, content, as many a woman who needed love less and
craved it less has been content just with being loved, when to
make herself content she has had to ignore and forget the
personality of the man who was doing the loving--and the kind of
love it was. Said he:

"Don't you love me a little