the truth?"

"Yes, yes--go on. I am listening."

"Was there, in all the world, at that time, more than one person whose
kiss had the power to thrill you as that kiss thrilled you? Answer me,
Margie Harrison!"

"I will not! You have no right to ask me!" she replied, passionately.

"It is useless to attempt disguise, Margie. I can read your very
thoughts. At the moment you felt that touch, you knew instinctively who
was near you. You felt and acknowledged the presence of one who had no
right to be kissing the hand of another man's promised wife. And yet
the forbidden sin of that person was sweet to you. You stooped and
pressed your lips where his had been! Whose?"

"I do not know--indeed I do not! Why do you torture me so, Alexandrine?"

"My poor child, I will say no more. Good-night, Margie. I trust you will
have a pleasant evening with Mr. Trevlyn."

Margie caught the flowing skirt of Miss Lee's dress.

"You shall tell me all! I must know. I have heard too much to be kept in
ignorance of the remainder."

"So be it. You shall hear all. You know that Archer Trevlyn was in the
graveyard, or near it, that night, though you might not see him. Yet you
were sure of his presence--"

"I was not! I tell you, I was not!" she cried, fiercely. "I saw no one;
not a person!"

"Then, if you were not sure of his presence, you loved some other; else
why did you put your lips where those of a stranger had been? In that
case, you were doubly false!"

Margie's cheeks were crimson with shame. She covered her face with her
hands, and was silent.

"How many can you love at once, Margie Harrison?"

"Alexandrine, you are cruel!--cruel! Is it not enough for you to tell me
the truth, without torturing me thus?"

A flash of conscious triumph crossed the cold face of Miss Lee, and then
she was calm as before.

"No, I am not cruel--only truthful. You cannot deny that you knew
Archer Trevlyn was near you. You will not deny it. Margie, I know
what love is--I know something of its keen, subtle instincts. I should
recognize the vicinity of the man I loved, though all around me were
black as midnight."

"Well, what then?" asked Margie, defiantly.

"Wait and see. I followed you out that night, with no definite purpose in
my mind. Perhaps it was curiosity to see what a romantic woman, about to
be married to a man she does not love, would do, I stood outside the
hedge of arbor vitae while you were inside. I saw the tall, shadowy
figur