."

"What's the rush?" said Haney; "stay on a day or two and see the town
with us--'tis a great show."

Bertha, re-entering at this moment in her shining gown, put the young
attorney's Spartan resolution to rout. He stammered: "I ought to be on
the ground before the mine-owners begin to open fire, and,
besides--Alice is not very well."

At the mention of Alice's name Bertha's glance wavered and her eyelids
fell. She did not urge him to stay, and Haney spoke up, heartily: "I'm
sorry to hear she's not well. She was pretty as a rose the night of the
dinner."

"She lives on her nerves," Ben replied, falling into sadness. "One day
she's up in the clouds and dancing, the next she's flat in her bed in a
darkened room unwilling to see anybody."

"'Tis the way of the White Death," thought Haney, but he spoke
hopefully: "Well, spring is here and a long summer before her--she'll be
herself against October."

"I trust so," said Ben, but Bertha could see that he was losing hope and
that his life was being darkened by the presence of the death angel.

Haney changed the current of all their thinking by saying to Bertha: "If
you are minded to go home, now is your chance, acushla. You can return
with Mr. Fordyce, while Lucius and I go on to New York the morning."

"No, no!" she cried out in a panic. "No, I am going with you--I want to
see New York myself," she added, in justification. The thought of the
long journey with Ben Fordyce filled her with a kind of terror, a
feeling she had never known before. She needed protection against
herself.

"Very well," said Haney, "that's settled. Now let's show Mr. Fordyce the
town."

Ben put aside his doubt and went forth with them, resolute to make a
merry day of it. He seemed to regain all his care-free temper, but
Bertha remained uneasy and at times abnormally distraught. She spoke
with effort and listened badly, so busily was she wrought upon by
unbidden thoughts. The question of her lover's disloyalty to Alice
Heath, strange to say, had not hitherto troubled her--so selfishly, so
childishly had her own relationship to him filled her mind. She now saw
that Alice Heath was as deeply concerned in Ben's relationship to her as
Haney, and the picture of the poor, pale, despairing lady, worn with
weeping, persistently came between her and the scenes Mart pointed out
on their trips about the city. Did Alice know--did she suspect? Was that
why she was sinking lower and lower into the shado