fference
in the world!"

"There it is," said Vetch with anxious weariness. "That is all I can get
out of her."

"She is so tired," replied Corinna. "Let her rest." Though her gaze was
on the street, she saw still the dusk beyond the ailantus tree and the
old woman, with the crooked back, pressing down the eyelids over those
staring eyes.

They did not speak again through the short drive; and when they reached
the house and entered the hall, Patty turned for the first time to
Corinna. "I can never tell you," she began, "I can never tell
you--" Then, with a strangled sob, she broke away and ran to the
staircase beyond the library.

"Let her rest," said Corinna, as Vetch came with her on the porch.
"Leave her to herself. She needs sleep, but she is very young--and for
youth there is no despair that does not pass."

"You are as tired as she is," he returned.

She nodded. "I am going home to sleep, but the look of that child
worries me."

"I kept it from her for sixteen years," he said slowly, "and she found
out by an accident."

"I never suspected, or I might have prevented it."

"No, I trusted too much to chance. I have always trusted to chance."

"I think," she said, "that you have trusted most to your good
instincts."

He smiled, and she saw that he was deeply touched. "Well, I'm trusting
to them now," he responded. "They have led me between two extremes, and
it looks as if they had led me into a nest of hornets. I've got them all
against me, but it isn't over yet, by Jove! It is a long road that has
no turning--"

They had descended the steps together, and walking a little way beyond
the drive, they stood in the bright green grass looking up at the clear
gold of the sunrise.

"There is a meeting to-night," she said.

"Of the strikers--yes, I may win them. I can generally win people if
they let me talk--but the trouble goes deeper than that. It isn't that I
can't carry them with me for an hour. It is simply that I can't make any
of them see where we are going. It is a question not of loyalty, but of
understanding. They can't understand anything except what they want."

"Whether you win or not," she answered, "I am glad that at last I am on
your side."

His face lighted. "On my side? Even if it means failure?"

As she looked up at him the sunrise was in her face. The sky was turning
slowly to flame-colour, and each dark pointed leaf of the magnolia tree
stood out illuminated against a background of