been, she rushed to the window
in swift attempt to catch a final glimpse of him. But in vain; he had
hurried away without looking back, her look of wonder and surprise still
dazzling him with its significance. A kiss with him, as with her, had
never been a thing lightly given or received, and this caress, so simple
to others, sprang from an impulse that was elemental. That he had both
shocked and angered her he fully believed; but the arch of her brows,
the wistful curve of her lips, and the pretty, almost childish, push of
her hands against his breast were still so appealingly vivid that he
entered the carriage and took his seat beside Alice with a kind of
rebellious joy hot in his blood.

However, as his passion ebbed his uneasiness deepened, and he went to
his room that night with a feeling that his connection with the Haneys,
so profitable and so pleasant, was in danger of being irremediably
broken off. "She will be justified in refusing ever to see me again," he
groaned. And in this spirit of self-condemnation and loneliness he took
up his work next day.

Bertha's self-revelation was slower. She was so young and so innately
honest and good that no sense of guilt attached to the pleasure she felt
in the sudden revelation that this splendid young man loved her--a
pleasure which grew as the first shock of the parting, the pain, and the
surprise wore away. "He likes me! He said I was beautiful! He kissed
me!" These were the rounds in the ladder of her ascent, and she was
carried high, only to fall into despair. For was she not leaving him and
all the pleasant people she had come so recently to know--hurrying away
into darkness with a crippled man, old before his time, out into a world
of which she knew little--for which, at this moment, she cared nothing?

She went back, a few moments later, with this sorrow written on her
face, to find Lucius, the colored man, deftly preparing the Captain for
bed. The old borderer looked up with a smile, in which shame and sadness
mingled. "Well, Bertie, I didn't think I'd come to this--me, that could
once sit in me saddle and pick a dollar out o' the dust. But so it is."

"I'll take care of you!" she cried, in swift contrition. Turning almost
fiercely to the valet, she said: "You can go, I'll 'tend to him!"

The Captain stopped her gently. "No, darlin', Ben's right; I'm too
clumsy and heavy for you. I need just such a handy man. Now, now! Let
be!... Go ahead, Lucius, strip off th