supposed that its influence was insidious, for she no longer
looked on its frivolities with half-amused contempt, as she had at
first. She realized the vast control that that city had over so much
of the rest of the world, and that when some of the men with whom she
had lightly laughed and chatted pulled the strings, new industries
sprang up far away in the scorching tropics or on the desolate
prairie, and new laws were made for hosts of dusky people. It was
certainly a legitimate bargain Kinnaird had suggested. She had wealth
sufficient for them both, and he could offer her the entry into a
world where wealth well directed meant power, and this she undoubtedly
desired to possess. There was a vein of ambition in this girl whose
father had risen to affluence from a very humble origin, and while she
listened to Gregory Kinnaird she had felt that she could rise further
still.

She knew that she had will and charm enough to secure, with the aid of
her father's money, almost what place she would, and for a few moments
she saw before her dazzling possibilities, and then, with the
resolution that was part of her nature, she turned her eyes away.
After all, though a high position with the power and pride of leading
was a thing to be desired, life, she felt, had as much to offer in
different ways; and she recalled a very weary man limping, gray in
face, up the steep range. The picture was very plainly before her as
she sat there shivering a little, and her heart grew soft toward the
wanderer. She knew at last why nothing that Kinnaird could have said
or offered would have moved her, and she looked down at the lamps that
blinked among the leafless boughs with a great tenderness shining in
her eyes. The stir of the city fell faintly on unheeding ears, and she
was conscious only of a longing for the stillness of the vast pine
forest through which she had wandered with Weston at her side.

Then she rose abruptly and went back into the lighted room. Though she
danced once or twice, and talked to a number of people who, perhaps
fortunately, did not seem to expect her to say anything very
intelligent, she was glad when Mrs. Kinnaird sent for her, and they
and Arabella drove away together. The elder lady troubled her with no
questions; but soon after they reached home she came into the room
where Ida sat, and as she left the door open the girl saw Gregory go
down the stairway with a letter in his hand. He met his sister near
the foot