to the subtle influence he has over most people. You have held to your
own ideas of what is right and wrong."

She blushed under his eyes and his words. "I'm afraid I don't deserve
all that credit. I remember a time when I did have some ugly feelings
and some tempestuous desires for pleasures that were out of my reach.
But I had too many other things to do and to think about, and so I
guess I outgrew them."

"And I guess, too, that they didn't find congenial soil in your heart
to take root in," he added. "But you needn't be much worried about
your sister, for I am sure it will not last much longer. At the
best--or worst--there will not be many more opportunities--" again he
straightened up and sent that triumphant glance of his alert,
confident eyes out across the water--"in which it will be possible for
him to work any evil. But he is so thoroughly base that if I were you
I would not trust her with him again."

Henrietta wondered what he meant by that "not many more
opportunities," but forebore to ask him lest she might unintentionally
pry into some matter of which he did not wish to speak. Another
enigmatical fragment from his secret thought came out when she asked
his advice about her own relations with Brand. She told him how
repugnant she was beginning to find her work because--and here she
skipped lightly and diplomatically over her reasons, so that she might
not do violence to her own sense of loyalty to her employer--she did
not now feel in harmony with his methods of doing business and his
ways of looking at a good many things.

"You don't need to put it in so roundabout a way," he told her
impulsively. "I know all about that change in the man's character and
how nearly he has lost all sense of truth and honesty. Luckily, he
still controls his temper with you and treats you with respect----"

He stopped and his whole manner suddenly bristled with aggressiveness.
In his voice as he spoke the next words there was a significant ring:
"And I don't think he'll do otherwise. But of course you can't put up
much longer with these developments in him. I would advise you to look
for another position at once. In fact, I am sure you'd better, because
it won't be long until Felix will not need you."

She gazed at him with such question and alarm in her eyes, that he
returned her look with surprise. "Oh," he exclaimed, "I see. You are
puzzled by what I said. I forgot for the moment,--perhaps I have
before, too--that y