"

"And I suppose you realize," said Eileen bitterly, "that you lost me
John Gilman when you did it."

"I?" said Linda. "I lost you John Gilman when I did it? But I didn't
do it. You did it. You have been busy for four years doing it. If you
hadn't done it, it wouldn't have been there for me to show him. I can't
see that this is profitable. Certainly it's the most distressing thing
that ever has occurred for me. But I didn't feel that I could let you
meet John Gilman tonight without telling you what he knows. If you have
any way to square your conscience and cleanse your soul before you meet
him, you had better do it, for he's a mighty fine man and if you lose
him you will have lost the best chance that is likely ever to come to
you."

Linda sat studying Eileen. She saw the gallant effort she was making
to keep her self-possession, to think with her accustomed rapidity, to
strike upon some scheme whereby she could square herself. She rose and
started toward the door.

"What you'll say to John I haven't the faintest notion," she said. "I
told him very little. I just showed him."

Then she went out and closed the door after her. At the foot of the
stairs she met Katy admitting Gilman. Without any preliminaries she
said: "I repeat, John, that I'm sorry for what happened the other day.
I have just come from Eileen. She will be down as soon as Katy tells her
you're here, no doubt. I have done what I told you I would. She knows
what I showed you so you needn't employ any subterfuges. You can be
frank and honest with each other."

"I wish to God we could," said John Gilman.

Linda went to her work. She decided that she would gauge what happened
by the length of time John stayed. If he remained only a few minutes it
would indicate that there had been a rupture. If he stayed as long as he
usually did, the chances were that Eileen's wit had triumphed as usual.

At twelve o'clock Linda laid her pencils in the box, washed the brushes,
and went down the back stairs to the ice chest for a glass of milk. The
living room was still lighted and Linda thought Eileen's laugh quite
as gay as she ever had heard it. Linda closed her lips very tight and
slowly climbed the stairs. When she entered her room she walked up to
the mirror and stared at herself in the glass for a long time, and then
of herself she asked this question:

"Well, how do you suppose she did it?"

CHAPTER XVIII. Spanish Iris

Just as Linda was most deeply