dreading
what might follow, since I was perfectly helpless to warn them.
The platform was built around the station, and in a moment they
were out of hearing.

Before many seconds were over, however, they had walked round the
building, and I heard Lord Ralles say,--

"You really don't mean that he's insulted you?"

"That is just what I do mean," cried Madge, indignantly. "It's
been almost past endurance. I haven't dared to tell any one, but
he had the cruelty, the meanness, on Hance's trail to threaten
that--"

At that point the walkers turned the corner again, and I could
not hear the rest of the sentence. But I had heard more than
enough to make me grow hot with mortification, even while I could
hardly believe I had understood aright. Madge had been so kind to
me lately that I couldn't think she had been feeling as bitterly
as she spoke. That such an apparently frank girl was a consummate
actress wasn't to be thought, and yet--I remembered how well she
had played her part on Hance's trail; but even that wouldn't
convince me. Proof of her duplicity came quickly enough, for,
while I was still thinking, the walkers were round again, and
Lord Ralles was saying,--

"Why haven't you complained to your father or brothers?"

"Because I knew they would resent his conduct to me, and--"

"Of course they would," cried her companion, interrupting. "But
why should you object to that?"

"Because of the letters," explained Madge. "Don't you see that if
we made him angry he would betray us to Mr. Camp, and--"

Then they passed out of hearing, leaving me almost desperate,
both at being an eavesdropper to such a conversation, and that
Madge could think so meanly of me. To say it, too, to Lord Ralles
made it cut all the deeper, as any fellow who has been in love
will understand.

Round they came again in a moment, and I braced myself for the
lash of the whip that I felt was coming. I didn't escape it, for
Madge was saying,--

"Can you conceive of a man pretending to care for a girl and yet
treating her so? I can't tell you the grief, the mortification, I
have endured." She spoke with a half-sob in her throat, as if she
was struggling not to cry, which made me wish I had never been
born. "It's been all I could do to control myself in his
presence, I have come so utterly to hate and despise him," she
added.

"I don't wonder," growled Lord Ralles. "My only surprise is--"

With that they passed out of hearing again, leavi