ll with a mocking smile upon his lips. He bore
himself with a certain royal pride that made her feel decidedly small.

"You will never say that again," he remarked.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because," he answered, with a drawling sneer, "you are like the rest of
creation. You put breed before everything. Unless a man has what you are
pleased to term pure blood in his veins he is beyond the pale."

"Whatever are you talking about?" said Dot, frankly mystified.

He stopped dead and faced her. "I am talking of myself, if you want to
know," he told her very bitterly. "I am beyond the pale, an illegitimate
son, with a strain of Red Indian in my veins to complete my damnation."

"Good gracious!" said Dot.

She stared at him for a few seconds mutely, as if the sudden announcement
had taken her breath away.

At last: "Then--then--Mrs. Errol--" she stammered.

"Is not my mother," he informed her grimly. "Did you ever seriously think
she was?" He flung back his shoulders arrogantly. "You're almighty blind,
you English."

Dot continued to contemplate him with her frank eyes, as if viewing for
the first time a specimen of some rarity.

"Well, I don't see that it makes any difference," she said at length.
"You are you just the same. I--I really don't see quite why you told me."

"No?" said Nap, staring back at her with eyes that told her nothing.
"P'r'aps I just wanted to show you that you are wasting your solicitude
on an object of no value."

"How--funny of you!" said Dot.

She paused a moment, still looking at him; then with a quick, childish
movement she slipped her hand through his arm. Quite suddenly she knew
how to deal with him.

"You seem to forget," she said with a little smile, "that I'm going to be
your sister one day."

He stiffened at her action, and for a single moment she wondered if she
could have made a mistake. And then as suddenly he relaxed. He took the
hand that rested on his arm and squeezed it hard.

And Dot knew that in some fashion, by a means which she scarcely
understood, she had gained a victory.

They went on together along the mossy, winding path. A fleeting shower
was falling, and the patter of it sounded on the leaves.

Nap walked with his face turned up to the raindrops, sure-footed, with
the gait of a panther. He did not speak a word to the girl beside him,
but his silence, did not disconcert her. There was even something in it
that reassured her.

They were approaching t