" he said.

"Then why do you make the assertion? What grounds have you for making
the assertion?" Monck spoke with insistence as one who meant to have an
answer.

And the boy answered him, albeit shamefacedly. "I really can't say,
Monck. I'm the sort of fool that sees things without being able to
explain how. But that Stella has the faintest spark of real love for
that fellow Dacre,--well, I'd take my dying oath that she hasn't."

"Some women don't go in for that sort of thing," commented Monck dryly.

"Stella isn't that sort of woman." Hotly came Tommy's defence. "You
don't know her. She's a lot deeper than I am."

Monck laughed a little. "Oh, you're deep enough, Tommy. But you're
transparent as well. Now your sister on the other hand is quite
inscrutable. But it is not for us to interfere. She probably knows what
she is doing--very well indeed."

"That's just it. Does she know? Isn't she taking a most awful leap in
the dark?" Keen anxiety sounded in Tommy's voice. "It's been such
horribly quick work, you know. Why, she hasn't been out here six weeks.
It's a shame for any girl to marry on such short notice as that. I said
so to her, and she--she laughed and said, 'Oh, that's beggar's choice!
Do you think I could enjoy life with your angels in paradise in
unmarried bliss? I'd sooner stay down in hell with you.' And she'd have
done it too, Monck. And it would probably have killed her. That's partly
how I came to know."

"Haven't the women been decent to her?" Monck's question fell curtly, as
if the subject were one which he was reluctant to discuss.

Tommy looked at him through the starlight. "You know what they are," he
said bluntly. "They'd hunt anybody if once Lady Harriet gave tongue. She
chose to eye Stella askance from the very outset, and of course all the
rest followed suit. Mrs. Ralston is the only one in the whole crowd who
has ever treated her decently, but of course she's nobody. Everyone sits
on her. As if," he spoke with heat, "Stella weren't as good as the best
of 'em--and better! What right have they to treat her like a social
outcast just because she came out here to me on her own? It's hateful!
It's iniquitous! What else could she have done?"

"It seems reasonable--from a man's point of view," said Monck.

"It was reasonable. It was the only thing possible. And just for that
they chose to turn the cold shoulder on her,--to ostracize her
practically. What had she done to them? What right had t