ve a brother at your side to whom you can speak frankly
of those who seek your favor? Come, Madge, be simple and rational. I
have not changed; my frank words and pleadings prove that I have
not. If we do not go back to the hotel brother and sister it will be
because you have changed;" and he attempted to put his arm around her
and draw her to him.

She sprang aloof. "Well, then, I have changed," she said, in a low,
concentrated voice. "Think me a prude if you will. I know I am not.
You are unjust to me, for you give me, in effect, no alternative.
You say, 'Think of me as a brother; feel and act as if you were my
sister,' when I am not your sister. It's like declaring that there
is nothing in blood--that such relations are questions of choice and
will. I said in downright sincerity that I regarded you as almost the
best friend I had, and I have not so many friends that the word means
nothing to me. I do remember all your kindness in the past--when have
I forgotten it for an hour?--but that does not change the essential
instincts of my womanhood, and since we parted I've grown to
womanhood. You in one sense have not changed, and I still am in your
mind the invalid child you used to indulge and fondle. It is not just
to me now to ask that I act and feel as if there were a natural tie
between us. The fact ever remains that there is not. Why should I
deceive you by pretending to what is impossible? Nature is stronger
than even your wishes, Graydon, and cannot be ignored."

She spoke hesitatingly, feeling her way across most difficult and
dangerous ground, but her decision was unmistakable, and he said,
quietly, "I am answered. See, we have wandered far from the house. Had
we not better return?"

After a few moments of silence she asked, "Are you so rich in friends
that you have no place for me?"

"Why, certainly, Madge," he replied, in cordial, offhand tones, "we
are friends. There's nothing else for us to be. I don't pretend to
understand your scruples. Even if a woman refused to be my wife I
should be none the less friendly, unless she had trifled with me. To
my man's reason a natural tie does not count for so much as the years
we spent together. I remember what you were to me then, and what I
seemed to you. I tried to keep up the old feeling by correspondence.
The West is a world of wonders, and you have come from it the greatest
wonder of all."

"I hope I shall not prove to you a monstrosity, Graydon. I will try
n