ting,
Miss Drew, you took my thoughts off business. Come on."

CHAPTER XIV

Joyce, waiting in the solitude of the shack under the pines, heard and
saw little of what was going on in St. Ange. She was living at high
pressure, and she had not even the relief of companionship to divert her
from her lonely vigils.

Naturally the exhilaration of the night that Gaston left her, passed and
the dull monotony of the daily tasks performed perfunctorily with no
charm of another's approbation and sharing, lost the power of holding
her thoughts.

She ate, and made tidy the little house in quite the old way, but the
large dreaming eyes looked beyond the narrow confines, and grew pathetic
as they searched the white fields and hidden trails off toward the
Northern and Southern Solitudes.

Which way had he gone? From which direction would he return? Everything
was ready for him--it always had been since the night he left--and she,
herself, once the daily routine was over, donned her prettiest garments,
not the golden gown! and waited either by the glowing fire or by the
little windows.

Early in the day following Gaston's departure, she had discovered the
key in the lock of the chest! The sight for a moment, made her tremble.

Had he left it by mistake? Had he left it designedly, now that he had
taken her completely into his confidence?

But had he? Joyce flushed and paled at the thought. After all, what had
he really told her? She did not know, even, his true name nor the place
from which he had come.

No; she knew very little. Shaken from his indifference by her beauty and
charm into a realizing sense of the woman he had helped to form, Gaston
had indeed broken his silence and voiced the one great tragedy of his
life to her--and she had superbly stood the test; but that was all!

In the chest lay, perhaps the rest! His name; the name of those who had
taken part in all that had gone before the terrible time of his trouble.
For a moment a paralyzing temptation came to Joyce to solve for herself,
by the means at hand, the mystery which still surrounded the man she
loved with a completeness and abandon that controlled every thought and
act of her life. But it was only a momentary weakness. Her love shielded
her from any shortcoming that could possibly lower her.

Bravely she walked up to the chest, and proved herself by trying the lid
to see if the chest were unlocked. It was. Gaston had not even taken
that precautio