e about me."

Miss Rexhill laughed scornfully, a low, withering laugh that brought a
flush to the girl's cheeks, even though her conscience told her that she
had nothing to be ashamed of. Dorothy stared at the other woman with
wide-open, puzzled eyes, diverted for the moment from her own purpose.

"At least, you need not expect me to help you," Helen said acidulously.
"I have my own feelings. I respected Mr. Wade at one time and valued his
friendship. You have taken from me my respect for him, and you have
taken from him his self-respect. Quite likely you had no respect for
yourself, and so you had nothing to lose. But if you'll stop to
consider, you may see how impertinent you are to appeal to me so
brazenly."

"What are you talking about?" Dorothy's eyes, too, were blazing now, but
more in championship of Wade than of herself. She still did not fully
understand the drift of what Miss Rexhill had said.

"Really, you are almost amusing." Helen looked at her through
half-closed lids. "You are quite freakish. I suppose you must be a moral
degenerate, or something of the sort." She waited for the insult to sink
in, but Dorothy was fairly dazed and bewildered. "Do you want me to call
things by their true names?"

"Yes," answered Dorothy, "I do. Tell me what you are talking about."

"I don't mind, I'm sure. Plain speaking has never bothered me. It's the
deed that's horrible, not the name. You were found in Mr. Moran's office
with Mr. Wade, late at night, misbehaving yourself. Do you dare to come
now to me and...."

"That is not true!" The denial came from Dorothy with an intensity that
would have carried conviction to any person less infuriated than the
woman who faced her. "Oh!" Dorothy raised her hands to her throat as
though struggling for breath. "I never dreamed you meant that. It's a
deliberate lie!"

In the grip of their emotions, neither of the girls had noticed the
entrance of Senator Rexhill. Helen saw him first and dramatically
pointed to him.

"There is my father. Ask him!"

"I do not need to ask him what I've done." Dorothy felt as though she
would suffocate. "No one would believe that story of Gordon, whatever
they might think of me."

"Ask me? Ask me what?" the Senator nervously demanded. He had in his
pocket a telegram just received from Washington, stating that the
cavalry would be sent from Fort Mackenzie only at the request of the
Governor of Wyoming. The Governor was not at all likely to mak