nning to think that you
are like other men."

"Like other men?"

"Men who love and hate. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you are
really fond of that man who fought you at the Inn."

"He was a good boxer," was the enthusiastic reply.

"And you like him?"

"I might if I knew him."

"Can you fight everybody like that, and still have love for them?"

"Self-control is the better word. Unless a man can learn that, he had
better stay out of the ring. What is true in boxing, is just as true in
life."

"But, when there are those who threaten to wreck your whole life and
your work, what are you going to do?"

"That is the time when one needs to summon every ounce of self-control
he possesses. It is when the other man is seeking to land a knock-out
blow that one needs to keep his head the coolest, for unless he does he
can't make his best calculations."

"Oh, Mr. McGowan! You'll keep that way in this trouble, and not let any
of them get in that kind of blow?"

"Yes, if you will only help me."

"I help you? But I can't!"

"No one else can."

"Oh!" cried the girl, beginning to take in the meaning of his words.

"Elizabeth----"

"Don't say it, please!" Her fingers went to her lips in a hurt gesture.
"You may spoil everything."

"I must speak. I love you! I have loved you from the first day beneath
that old elm-tree on the Captain's place."

"Oh!"--she sprang to her feet and faced him,--"now, you have made it
impossible for me to help you, where before I might have done
something!"

"Only if you say so."

"I did so want to help you! You seem so alone in this trouble! I thought
you were going to give me an opportunity. I thought you would tell me
how!" Her mobile lips puckered as the shadow of pain flitted across the
light of her eyes.

"Elizabeth!" he called, holding out his hand.

"Why did you say that to me?" she cried, her youthful face deeply
furrowed as though she had grown suddenly very tired.

"Because I could not help it. I've known so little of love in my life
that since this has come to me it hurts like the turning of a knife.
I've never been accustomed to human care like other men. Had I been, I
should have been able to hide my feelings behind the screen of pretense.
You asked me a while ago why I do not love and hate like other men. I do
love, and I hate! I have been schooled all my life to hide my hates, but
experience neglected me with the other. Elizabeth----"

She drew farther