hem; but no finer feeling told him that she had saved him from himself.

In that hour he saw himself as he was--unworthy of a good woman's love.

He saw other things as well; these he hoped to make good in the near
future, but this--but this!

He rowed back under cover of the dark to Champ-au-Haut. Octavius, who
was wondering at his non-appearance with the boat, met him with a
lantern at the float.

"Here's a telegram just come up; the operator gave it to me for you. I
told him you was out in the boat and would be here 'fore you went up
home."

"All right, Tave." He opened it; read it by the light of the lantern.

"I've got to go back to New York--it's a matter of business. It's all up
with my vacation and the yachting cruise now,"--he looked at his
watch,--"seven; I can get the eight-thirty accommodation to Hallsport,
and that will give me time to catch the Eastern express."

"Hold on a minute and I'll get your trap from the stable--it's all ready
for you."

"No, I'll get it myself--good-bye, Tave, I'm off."

"Good-bye, Champney."

* * * * *

"Champ's worried about something," he said to himself; he was making
fast the boat. "I never see him look like that--I hope he hasn't got
hooked in with any of those Wall Street sharks."

In a few minutes he heard the carriage wheels on the gravel in the
driveway. He stopped on his way to the stable to listen.

"He's driving like Jehu," he muttered. He was still listening; he heard
the frequent snorting of the horse, the rapid click of hoofs on the
highroad--but he did not hear what was filling the driver's ears at that
moment: the roar of an unseen cataract.

Champney Googe was realizing for the first time that he was in
mid-stream; that he might not be able to breast the current; that the
eddying water about him was in fact the whirlpool; that the rush of what
he had deemed mere harmless rapids was the prelude to the thunderous
fall of a cataract ahead.

IX

For several weeks after her nephew's visit, Mrs. Champney occupied many
of her enforced leisure half-hours in trying to put two and two together
in their logical combination of four; but thus far she had failed. She
learned through Octavius that Champney had returned to New York on
Saturday evening; that in consequence he was obliged to give up the
cruise with the Van Ostends; from Champney himself she had no word. Her
conclusion was that there had been no chance for him t