he speaks
truly, and as one inspired.

Nell's love-life lay dead at her feet, and Drake, though all
unconsciously, had slain it.

She wiped her lips, though they were dry and parched, and with trembling
hands smoothed her hair--the lips and the hair Drake had kissed so
often, with such rapture--and slowly, fighting for strength and
self-possession, passed into the ballroom.

The brilliant light, the music, the dancers, acted upon her
overstrained nerves as a dash of cold water upon a swooning man. For the
first time since the blow had fallen pride awoke in her. She had lost
Drake forever; but she would make no moan; other women before her had
lost their lovers and their husbands by death, and they had to bear
their bereavements; she must learn to bear hers.

A young fellow hurried up to her with a mingled expression of relief and
complaint.

"Oh, Miss Lorton; this is ours!" he said. "I have been looking for you
everywhere, everywhere, on my honor, and I was nearly distracted!"

Nell moistened her lips and forced a smile.

"I have been out on the terrace; it--it was hot."

"And--you didn't feel faint? You look rather pale now!" he said
apprehensively. "Would you rather not dance?"

"No, no; I would rather dance!" she replied, with a kind of feverish
impatience. "I--I think I am cold." She shivered a little. "I shall be
all the better for a dance!"

She went round like one moving in a dream; her eyes looking straight
before her in a fixed gaze, her lips curved with a forced smile. After a
moment or two she grew warmer; the blood began to circulate, a hectic
flush started out on her cheeks.

Any one seeing her would have thought she was enjoying herself
amazingly; would not have suspected that her heart was racked by agony;
that the music was beating upon her brain, inflicting pain with every
stroke; that she longed, with an aching longing, to be in the dark, in
her own room, alone with her unspeakable misery.

One talks glibly enough of women's sufferings; but not one of us ever
comes near gauging them, for the gods who have denied them some things
have granted to the least of them the great power of enduring in
silence, of smiling while they suffer, of murmuring commonplaces while
the iron is cutting deeper and deeper into their souls. The nobler the
woman the greater this power of hers; and there was much that was noble
in poor Nell. And as she danced, those who looked at her were full of
admiration or e