'You have thrown yourself at the feet of a
man who is simply laughing at you.' Now Anne never threw herself at any
man's feet--unless, indeed, it might be the feet of that boy on the
island to whom she is engaged. I do not know how she acts when with
him."

"It is a pity, since Bessmer overheard so much, that while she was about
it she did not overhear more," said Heathcote, dryly.

"You need not suspect her: she is as honest as a cow, and as
unimaginative. She happened to catch that sentence because she had
entered the next room for something; but she went out again immediately,
and heard no more. What I fear is that Miss Vanhorn has dismissed her
entirely, and that I shall not see her again, even at Moreau's. In the
note she says that she will send me her address when she can, which is
oddly expressed, is it not? I suppose she means that she will send it
when she knows where she is to be. Poor child! think of her to-night out
in the hard world all alone!"

"I do think of her."

"It is good of you to care so much. But you know how much attached to
her I am."

"Yes."

"She is an odd girl. Undeveloped, yet very strong. She would refuse a
prince, a king, without a thought, and work all her life like a slave
for the man she loved, whoever he might be. In truth, she has done what
amounts to nearly the same thing, if my surmises are correct. Those
children on the island were pensioned, and I presume the old dragon has
stopped the pension."

"Have you no idea where she has gone?"

"Probably to Mademoiselle Pitre at Lancaster, on the Inside Road; I
stopped there once to see her. It would be her first resource. I shall
hear from her, of course, in a few days, and then I shall help her in
every way in my power. We will not let her suffer, Ward."

"No."

Then there was a pause.

"Are you not chilly here, Helen?"

"It _is_ damp," said Mrs. Lorrington, rising. She always followed the
moods of this lethargic suitor of hers as closely as she could divine
them; she took the advance in every oblique and even retrograde movement
he made so swiftly that it generally seemed to have originated with
herself. In five minutes they were in the house, and she had left him.

In what was called the office, a group of young men were discussing,
over their cigars, a camping party; the mountains, whose blue sides lay
along the western sky, afforded good hunting ground still, and were not
as yet farmed out to clubs. The men now at C