s business. I want you to
remember that my life has been very different from yours. You'll hear
all sorts of things about me. Some of them are true. There is this
difference between a man and a good woman. He fights and falls and
fights again and wins. But a good woman is finer. She has never known
the failure that drags one through slime and mud. Her goodness is born
in her; she doesn't have to fight for it."

The girl smiled a little tremulously. "Doesn't she? We're not all angel,
you know."

"I hope you're not. There will need to be a lot of the human in you to
make allowances for Colby Macdonald," he replied with an answering
smile.

When he said good-bye it was with a warm, strong handshake.

"I'll be back in two days. Perhaps you'll have good news for me then,"
he suggested.

The dark, silken lashes of her eyes lifted shyly to meet his.

"Perhaps," she said.

CHAPTER XIII

DIANE AND GORDON DIFFER

During the absence of Macdonald the field agent saw less of Sheba than
he had expected, and when he did see her she had an abstracted manner he
did not quite understand. She kept to her own room a good deal, except
when she took long walks into the hills back of the town. Diane had a
shrewd idea that the Alaskan had put his fortune to the test, and she
not only let her cousin alone herself, but fended Gordon from her
adroitly.

The third day after the dinner Elliot dropped around to the Pagets with
intent to get Sheba into a set of tennis. Diane sat on the porch darning
socks.

"Sheba is out walking with Mr. Macdonald," she explained in answer to
a question as to the whereabouts of her guest.

"Oh, he's back, is he?" remarked Gordon moodily.

Mrs. Paget was quite cheerful on that subject. "He came back this
morning. Sheba has gone up with him to see the Lucky Strike."

"You're going to marry her to that man if you can, aren't you?" he
charged.

"If I can, Gordon." She slipped a darning-ball into one of little
Peter's stockings and placidly trimmed the edges of the hole.

"It's what I call a conspiracy."

"Is it?" Diane smiled.

Gordon understood her smile to mean that he was jealous.

"Maybe I am. That's not the point," he answered, just as if she had made
her accusation in words.

"Suppose you tell me what the point is," she suggested, both amused and
annoyed.

"He isn't good enough for her. You know that perfectly well."

"Good enough!" She shrugged her shoulders. "What man _is_ g