to go to the
mountains, but never felt that I could afford it. And now I can
combine business with pleasure."

The smile died out of Dave's eyes, and his face became more set and
stern than she had ever seen it. "Why, what's the matter, Mr. Elden?"
she exclaimed. "Is anything wrong?"

He found it hard to meet her frank, unsuspecting eyes; hard to draw
back the curtains of the world so much that those eyes would never
again be quite so frank and unsuspecting. . . . "Miss Wardin," he
said, "did Conward tell you that?"

"What? About going to the mountains? Of course. He said he was
taking some work with him, and he wondered if I would mind going along
to do it, and he would pay the expenses, and--and----"

There was a quick hard catch in her voice, and she seized Elden's arm
violently. Her eyes were big and round; her pretty face had gone
suddenly white.

"Oh, Mr. Elden, you don't think--you don't think that I--that he--you
wouldn't believe _that_?"

"I think you are absolutely innocent," he said, gravely, "but--it's the
innocent thing that gets caught." Suddenly, even in that tense moment,
his mind leaped over the gulf of years to the night when he had said to
Irene Hardy, "I don't know nothin' about the justice of God. All I
know is the crittur 'at can't run gets caught." It was so of Irene's
pet; it was so of poor, tubercular Merton; it was to be so of pretty
Gladys Wardin----

But the girl had broken into violent tears. "Whatever shall I do--what
can I do?" she moaned. "Oh, why didn't somebody tell me? What _can_ I
do----"

He let her passion run on for a few minutes, and then he sought, as
gently as he could, to win her back to some composure. "Some one _has_
told you," he said,--"in time. You don't have to go. Don't be afraid
of anything Conward may do. _I_ will settle this score with him."

She controlled herself, but when she spoke again her voice had fear and
shame in it. "I--I hate to tell you, Mr. Elden, but I must tell
you--I--I took--I let him give me some money--to buy things--he said
maybe I was short of money, and I would want to buy some new
clothes--and he would pay me extra, in advance--and he gave me fifty
dollars--and--and--_I've spent it_!"

Elden swung on his heel and paced the length of the office in quick,
sharp strides. When he returned to where Miss Wardin stood, wrapped
about in her misery, his fists were clenched and the veins stood out on
the back of his hand