part in his life.

"Oh yes! Well, I was ready to jump at anything and she diagnosed my case
with marvelous penetration. Really, Comly, it was staggering! She said
I faced life with the soul of a coward; she'd got an inkling, I suppose,
of my father's freakishness and injustice; and she told me I lacked
assurance and initiative. Suggested that I go armed and shoot any one
who stepped on my toes. All this with a laugh, of course; but
nevertheless I felt that she really meant it. She said a man can do
anything he really determines to do; it's up to him. She recited a piece
of verse to the effect that a man fears his fate too much if he won't
put his life to the test. I was fool enough to believe it. I tried to
follow her advice. It ended in my having a row with my father that beat
all the other rows I ever had with him and he turned against my
wife--said she was trying to estrange us. And when I ran away to escape
from the nasty mess he sent her telegrams in my name threatening to
kidnap the children and he did in fact kidnap my little daughter.
Snatched her away from her mother and carried her out to one of his
farms in Ohio. But my wife's a great woman, Comly; one of the dearest,
bravest women in the world. She's played a clever trick on the old
gentleman and got the child back again and I'm damned glad of it. I got
a message that the little girl's up in Michigan, so that's really where
I'm headed for. I don't dare believe that _she_ sent me the message, but
I hope to God she did. That's the way things have gone with me ever
since I listened to that girl. Everything all upside down. She's a
siren; a dangerous character; I ought to have known better!"

"She's beautiful, I suppose," Archie ventured, fanning himself with his
hat.

"Devilishly handsome!" Congdon exclaimed.

Archie had suffered a blow but he was meeting it bravely. Having
believed that Isabel had given him this same advice quite spontaneously,
it was with a shock that he realized that she had offered it in similar
terms to Congdon. There was no question as to the identity of the girl
who had bidden Congdon plant his back to the wall and defy the world; no
one but Isabel would ever have done that.

"And this young woman," Archie asked after a long glance at the lake,
"pardon me if I ask whether she affected you in a sentimental way? Did
you well, er--"

"If you mean am I in love with her," began Congdon, "I believe I can say
honestly that it hardly amou