ps I might have done so at first;
but it was too late before I learned the necessity, and then my heart
failed me. There was another reason I need not mention now, why I
hesitated, why such a course became doubly hard. But I am going to
tell you it all now, for--for I wish you to go away at least respecting
my womanhood."

He made no reply, no comment, and the girl dropped her questioning eyes
to the floor.

"You asked me if I had ever loved him," she continued, speaking more
slowly, "and I told you no. That was the truth as I realize it now,
although there was a time when the man fascinated, bewildered me, as I
imagine the snake fascinates a bird. I have learned since something of
what love truly is, and can comprehend that my earlier feeling toward
him was counterfeit, a mere bit of dross. Be patient, please, while I
tell you how it all happened. It--it is a hard task, yet, perhaps, you
may think better of me from a knowledge of the whole truth. I am a
Chicago girl. There are reasons why I shall not mention my family
name, and it is unnecessary; but my parents are wealthy and of good
position. All my earlier education was acquired through private
tutors; so that beyond my little, narrow circle of a world--fashionable
and restricted--all of real life remained unknown, unexplored, until
the necessity for a wider development caused my being sent to a
well-known boarding-school for girls in the East. I think now the
choice made was unfortunate. The school being situated close to a
large city, and the discipline extremely lax, temptation which I was
not in any way fitted to resist surrounded me from the day of entrance.
In a fashionable drawing-room, in the home of my mother's friends, I
first became acquainted with Mr. Farnham."

She paused with the mention of his name, as though its utterance pained
her, yet almost immediately resumed her story, not even glancing up at
her listener.

"I was at an age to be easily flattered by the admiration of a man of
mature years. He was considerably older than I, always well dressed,
versed in social forms, liberal with money, exhibiting a certain
dashing recklessness which proved most attractive to all the girls I
knew. Indeed, I think it was largely because of their envy that I was
first led to accept his attentions. However, I was very young, utterly
inexperienced, while he was thoroughly versed in every trick by which
to interest one of my nature. He claimed to