think that is terrible. I can't think of
anything much more pitiable."

Enfield lounged against the wall; Loramer watched him awhile,
listening to the storm booming without, as he lay stretched on the
straw. Then he went on:

"Do you think she's a good girl, Lawrence? It wouldn't be quite safe
for her to run on with some fellows as she did with me."

He caught Enfield's eye.

"No, it wasn't quite safe for her to run on so with me. She's either
very innocent, or very artful, or very reckless, I don't know which.
If she is good, she's very, very good."

He laughed, but Lawrence smoked soberly and silent.

"Young Harlow, the ensign, was her last capture, wasn't he?"

Enfield nodded, gravely.

"They say he was over his head, and would have given up the navy and
flouted his people and everything, if she would have taken him, but
she wouldn't let him sacrifice himself. That was a strange affair of
theirs--being lost on a sleigh-ride and snowed up two days across the
mountain. I never could understand it; both of them knew the country,
and none of the rest of the party found much trouble."

"I don't know," Enfield answered, slowly. "I wasn't taking as much
interest in her movements just then as I had been. I cut adrift about
the time she took Harlow in tow; I suppose she thought I was jealous,
and perhaps I was. I don't know how they managed it, but he left very
suddenly, and she was sick about that time."

* * * * *

All these things, and many more, surged through Enfield's mind now, as
he stood before her and was swayed by her unrestrained upbraiding. She
said that he had stood in her way, that she had put her trust in him
and given him such a near place that others had been kept from her. He
found that hard to swallow. He turned from her and threw himself into
an arm-chair, with his face away from her, and chewed the bitter
accusation.

Finally she came slowly and stood beside him a minute or two, then
said sadly, laying her hand on his arm:

"Forgive me, Lawrence, if I have said too much; I am in trouble; you
will help me, will you not?"

"Yes, I will do anything I can for you," he answered. "Have you made
any plans?"

She shook her head slowly.

"No; I don't know what I am to do. I can't live alone, and there's no
one here I can live with. They don't know me and yet think they do,
and they expect me to be always playing the character they have
invented for me. I'm tired