hat I
do not volunteer?"

"True," said her sister; "I beg your pardon."

Miss Du Prel rose. "I will leave you to yourselves," she said, walking
away.

Hadria sat down and rested one elbow on the grass, looking over the
sweep of the hill towards the distance. "That is almost like our old
vision in the caves, Algitha; mist and distant lands--it was a false
prophecy. You were talking about me when I came up, were you not?"

"Did you hear?"

"No, but I feel sure of it."

"Well, I confess it," said Algitha. "We are both very uneasy about you."

"If one never did anything all one's life to make one's friends uneasy,
I wonder if one would have any fun."

Algitha shook her head anxiously.

"'Choose what you want and pay for it,' is the advice of some accredited
sage," Hadria observed.

"Women have to pay so high," said Algitha.

"So much the worse, but there is such a thing as false economy."

"But seriously, Hadria, if one may speak frankly, I can't see that the
game is worth the candle. You have tested your power sufficiently. What
more do you want? Claude Moreton is too nice and too good a man to
trifle with. And poor Joseph Fleming! That is to me beyond everything."

Hadria flushed deeply.

"I never dreamt that he--I--I never tried, never thought for a
moment----"

"Ah! that is just the danger, Hadria. Your actions entail unintended
consequences. As Miss Du Prel says, 'It is always the good men whom one
wounds; the others wound us.'" Hadria was silent. "And Claude Moreton,"
continued Algitha presently. "He is far too deeply interested in you,
far too absorbed in what you say and do. I have watched him. It is
cruel."

Hadria grew fierce. "Has _he_ never cruelly injured a woman? Has _he_
not at least given moral support to the hideous indignities that all
womanhood has to endure at men's hands? At best one can make a man
suffer. But men also humiliate us, degrade us, jeer at, ridicule the
miseries that they and their society entail upon us. Yet for sooth, they
must be spared the discomfort of becoming a little infatuated with a
woman for a time--a short time, at worst! Their feelings must be
considered so tenderly!"

"But what good do you do by your present conduct?" asked Algitha,
sticking persistently to the practical side of the matter.

"I am not trying to do good. I am merely refusing to obey these rules
for our guidance, which are obviously drawn up to safeguard man's
property and privilege. Whe