s appeal the maid presently brought the answer, which Gerald,
oblivious of Miss Grizel's scrutiny, tore open and read.

'Don't make me despise you, Gerald. You come because of what I told you
yesterday, and I told you because it was over, so that you insult me by
coming. You must believe me when I say that it is over, and until you
can meet me as if you had forgotten, I cannot see you. I will not see
you now. I do not want to see you.--HELEN.'

He read this, and Miss Grizel saw the blood surge into his face. He
leaned back in his chair, crumpled Helen's note in his fingers, and
looked out of the window. Again Miss Grizel was sorry for him, though
with her sympathy there mingled satisfaction. Presently Gerald looked at
her, and it was as if he were, at last, aware of her. He looked for a
long time, and suddenly, like some one spent and indifferent, he said,
offering his explanation: 'You see--I'm in love with Helen--and she
won't have me.'

Miss Grizel gasped and gazed. 'In love with Helen? You?' she repeated.
The gold locket on her ample bosom had risen with her astounded breath.

'Yes,' said Gerald, 'and she won't have me.'

'But Miss Jakes?' said Miss Grizel.

'She is in love with Kane, and Kane with her--as he always has been, you
know. They are all right. Everything is all right, except Helen.'

A queer illumination began to shoot across Miss Grizel's stupor.

'Perhaps you told Helen that you loved her before Miss Jakes threw you
over. Perhaps you told Mr. Kane that Miss Jakes loved him before she
threw you over. Perhaps it's you who have upset the apple-cart.'

'I suppose it is,' said Gerald, gloomily, but without contrition. 'I
thought it would bring things right to have the facts out. It has
brought them right--for Althea and Kane; they will be perfectly happy
together.'

This simplicity, in the face of her own deep knowledge--the knowledge
she had built on in sending for Franklin Kane a week ago--roused a
ruthless ire in Miss Grizel. 'I'm afraid that you've let your own wishes
sadly deceive you,' she said. 'I must tell you, since you evidently
don't know it, that Mr. Kane is in love with Helen; deeply in love with
her. From what I understand of the situation you have sacrificed him to
your own feeling, and perhaps sacrificed Miss Jakes too; but I don't go
into that.'

It was now Gerald's turn to gaze and gasp; he did not gasp, however; he
only gazed--gazed with a gaze no longer inward and unseeing. H