nybody'd do anything for him."

Kitty eyed her mother closely. There was a strange, far-away, brooding
look in Mrs. Tynan's eyes, and she seemed for a moment lost in thought.

"You're in love with him," said Kitty sharply.

"I was, in a way," answered her mother frankly. "I was, in a way, a kind
of way, till I knew he was married. But it didn't mean anything. I never
thought of it except as a thing that couldn't be."

"Why couldn't it be?" asked Kitty, smothering an agitation rising in her
breast.

"Because I always knew he belonged to where we didn't, and because if
he was going to be in love himself, it would be with some girl like you.
He's young enough for that, and it's natural he should get as his profit
the years of youth that a young woman has yet to live."

"As though it was a choice between you and me, for instance!"

Mrs. Tynan started, but recovered herself. "Yes. If there had been any
choosing, he'd not have hesitated a minute. He'd have taken you, of
course. But he never gave either of us a thought that way."

"I thought that till--till after he'd told us his story," replied Kitty
boldly.

"What has happened since then?" asked her mother, with sudden
apprehension.

"Nothing has happened since. I don't understand it, but it's as though
he'd been asleep for a long time and was awake again."

Mrs. Tynan gravely regarded her daughter, and a look of fear came into
her face. "I knew you kept thinking of him always," she said; "but you
had such sense, and he never showed any feeling for you; and young
girls get over things. Besides, you always showed you knew he wasn't a
possibility. But since he told us that day about his being married and
all, has--has he been different towards you?"

"Not a thing, not a word," was the reply; "but--but there's a difference
with him in a way. I feel it when I go in the room where he is."

"You've got to stop thinking of him," insisted the elder woman
querulously. "You've got to stop it at once. It's no good. It's bad for
you. You've too much sense to go on caring for a man that--"

"I'm going to get married," said Kitty firmly. "I've made up my mind.
If you have to think about one person, you should stop thinking about
another; anyhow, you've got to make yourself stop. So I'm going to
marry--and stop."

"Who are you going to marry, Kitty? You don't mean to say it's John
Sibley!"

"P'r'aps. He keeps coming."

"That gambling and racing fellow!"

"He owns a b