ge freshman, and conversed,
as she discovered, in a language known only to the New York newspaper
man, who, as some one told her later, has a "slanguage" all his own.

No one could have been more helpful than he, in their present situation,
however, and Katrine learned anew day by day the gratitude he cherished
toward her for the help given so long before.

Slender and tall, with red face and high cheek-bones, thin nose turned
upward, showing the inside of the nostril, and the lines like a
parenthesis mark on either side of the mouth, he scanned the world
alertly with his pale-blue eyes, scenting news like a human hunter-dog.

But he had many of the faults of his race, for with fine insight and
ability to forecast events, he fell short in the execution of his brave
schemes; failed to keep the respect of others after he had won it;
accepted insufficient proof on all subjects, relying dangerously on a
much-vaunted intuition, a fault in him which changed Katrine's whole
life. In a way, he had become a power in the newspaper world, and had,
as she discovered, a knowledge of the private affairs of prominent
people which seemed supernatural; and it was a habit of his to look over
the names in a newspaper, remarking cheerfully at intervals:

"There's another man that I could put in jail."

But there was an unworded matter which gave Katrine a kinder feeling
toward Barney than either her love for Nora or any past acquaintance
between them might have done, and this was his admiration for Frank
Ravenel.

If Barney had any knowledge, directly, through Nora, or indirectly
through his intuition, of the interwovenness of Katrine's life with
Ravenel's, he had the taste and the ability to conceal it.

But his literary temperament got the better of him where Katrine was
concerned, and before a week was past he set up a hopeless passion for
her, as she laughingly put it.

"He'd die for you, Miss Katrine," Nora explained one evening.

"Sure I don't doubt it for a minute, if there were enough people by to
see him do it," Katrine answered, with Irish comprehension.

With this over-informed person, her little French maid, whom Barney
called "Her Irresponsible Frenchiness," and Nora, Katrine spent a busy
month trying to forget her meeting with Frank entirely. In the daytime
she could do this, but at night she wondered much concerning him--if he
were back at Ravenel; if Dermott had proceeded in the bitter business
concerning the ear