a dreary level calm."

Lister was puzzled and said nothing, but Barbara went on: "Perhaps some
girls like this; others don't, and now and then rebel. We feel we're
human, we want to live. Adventure calls us, as it calls you. We want to
front life's shocks and storms; unsatisfied curiosity drives us on. Then
perhaps romance comes and all the common longings of flesh and blood are
transfigured."

She stopped, and Lister began to see a light. This was her apology for
her rashness in Canada, all she would give, and he doubted if she had
given as much to others. On the whole, he thought the apology good.

"Romance cheats one now and then," he remarked, and pulled himself up
awkwardly, but Barbara was calm.

"I wonder whether it always cheats one!"

"I think not," he said. "Sometimes one must trust one's luck, and
venture. All the same, philosophizing is not my habit, and when I didn't
step lightly on the stone--"

"You mean, when you pushed the stone down?" Barbara interrupted.

"Oh, well. Anyhow, I didn't mean to philosophize. I wanted to find out
why you kept away from me."

"Although you knew why I did so? You admitted you knew why Harry went
off!"

"I see I've got to talk," said Lister. "Shillito was a cheat, but when
you found him out you tried to jump off the train. You let me help
because I think you trusted me."

"I did trust you. It's much to know my trust was justified. For one
thing, it looks as if I wasn't altogether a fool."

"Afterwards, when I met you at Montreal, you were friendly, although you
tried to persuade me you were a shop girl."

Barbara smiled. "I was a shop girl. Besides, you were a stranger, and
it's sometimes easy to trust people one does not expect to see again."

"My plan's to trust the people I like all the time," Lister replied.
"When I found you on the car platform I knew I ought to help, I saw you
meant to escape from something mean. Then at Montreal it was plain you
were trying in make good because you were proud and would not go back. I
liked that, although I thought you were not logical. Well, I told your
story because Vernon bluffed me, but if I'd known your step-father as I
know him now, I'd have told the tale before."

"Then, it was in order that I might understand this you sent the stone
down the crag?"

"I think it was," said Lister. "I hope I have, so to speak, cleared the
ground."

Barbara gave him a puzzling smile. "You're rather obvious, but it's
important