l me the rest--I can
bear it! What did my"--her big blue eyes twinkled as she smiled--"my
father say about me?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, I can't, you know!" I demurred. "I say,
what's the use, dash it?" Poor old boy, somehow I just hated to round on
him--he was so jolly hard hit already; Jack, don't you know! Besides--

"Please!" Jove, how she said it!

"Oh, dash it, I'm afraid it will hurt you," I protested uneasily; "and I
don't think the judge really--"

"I just don't care _that_"--a snap from her little fingers and her arm
went back--"for anything _he_ ever said about me that was _mean_! So,
please go on--I must go dress for luncheon."

And so I just took a deep breath, a long running leap, and cleared the
bar--told her all, you know!

Oddly, this time she didn't laugh--and I knew why: it was her father,
and it had cut her to the heart. This was what I had feared. As I
proceeded, narrating the interview in the library, she just grew rosier
and rosier red, but sat looking at me wide-eyed and unflinching. The
pulsation of her bosom quickened a little, but her dear face remained
unchanged, save for her little trick of dragging her under-lip through
her white teeth.

"And, by Jove, that's all!" I finished with relief as I mopped my face.
"But who cares, don't you know, or believes any bit of it? Anyhow, _we_
don't--for we know!"

"Are you _sure_?" She spoke gravely, yet in her eyes were the dancing
star-motes of a laugh. "The extravagance, the gambling, and the--oh, all
of it? I must tell you _I_ heard some sad things myself about Francis
Billings while I was at Cambridge--"

I grunted scornfully. "_I_ know: from that two-faced cat, Miss Kirkland!
Say, how I wish, by Jove, that woman would pack up and go back to
China--the _sponge_!" And I screwed my glass indignantly.

"Oh, now!" she remonstrated sweetly, "you mustn't say _that_! You might
be sorry!" She smiled archly.

I grunted contemptuously.

Again she rested her little chin upon her hand, eying me thoughtfully,
earnestly.

"And so you don't believe any of it?"

I chuckled at the idea. "Oh, I say now, Frances, you _know_ I don't!"
And I shoved a bit nearer, looking into her eyes. But just then I saw
Wilkes come out and look around.

And _she_ must have glanced about quickly and have seen him, too, for as
I shifted my eyes to her again she was blushing furiously and had moved
a bit.

"I'm afraid," she said measuredly, her chin lifting a l