ou, and it's she I want."

She shook her head.

"No," she answered. "It's some woman you've placed there--some woman
who might have been there--that you see. But she isn't there,
because--because I can't go with you."

Some woman he had put there. He looked at the stars, and the little
star by the Big Dipper was shining steadily at him. He passed his hand
over his forehead.

"If she were really in me, she'd go with you to-morrow," Frances ran
on excitedly. "She'd want to get into the game. She'd want to be
hungry with you, and she wouldn't care about anything else in the
world but you. She--she'd want to suffer, Don. She'd be almost glad
that you had no money. Her father wouldn't count, because she'd care
so much."

She drew her cape about her shoulders.

"Yes," he answered in a hoarse whisper; "she's like that."

"So, don't you see--"

"Good Lord, I do see!" he exclaimed.

Now he saw.

With his head swimming, with his breath coming short, he saw. But he
was as dazed as a man suddenly given sight in the glare of the blazing
sun.

Frances was frightened by his silence.

"I--I think we'd better go back now," she said gently.

He escorted her to the house without quite knowing how he found the
way. At the door she said:--

"Don't you understand, Don?"

"Yes," he answered; "for the first time."

"And you'll not think too badly of me?"

"It isn't anything you can help," he answered. "It isn't anything I
can help, either."

"Don't think too badly of Dad," she pleaded. "He'll cool down soon,
and then--you must come and see me again."

She held out her hand, and he took it. Then swiftly she turned and
went into the house. He hurried back to the path--to the path where on
Saturday afternoons he had walked with Sally Winthrop.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SEEING

He saw now. Blind fool that he had been, month after month! He sank on
a bench and went back in his thoughts to the first time he had ever
seen Sally Winthrop. She had reminded him that it was luncheon time,
and when he had gone out she had been waiting for him. She must have
been waiting for him, or he never would have found her. And she had
known he was hungry.

"She'd want to be hungry with you," Frances had said.

How had Sally Winthrop known that he was hungry? She had known, and
had shared with him what she had.

Then incident after incident in the office came back to him. It was
she who had taught him how to work. It was for her tha