right to his own life.
I had hoped he would help me in my own field, but he could not if he
would. I have come to see that plainly. I do not mean to say that
these amiable machinations of your friends caused me for a moment to
consider giving him up. I have survived worse----" She shuddered as
she recalled that hideous hour with Agnes Trevor, but promptly whipped
the memory back to cover. "But it made me very uncomfortable, and I
realized there was nothing to do but compromise. We must take what we
can get in this world, my dear Miss Dwight, and be thankful for a
candle when we cannot have the sun."

And Gora, feeling unaccountably saddened, summoned the others to her
room and told them of Madame Zattiany's announcement and request. Some
gasped with astonishment and delight, others were darkly suspicious,
but all gave their word unhesitatingly to "forget it" while they were
in camp. Those that regarded Madame Zattiany as the most fascinating
woman they had ever known, but also as an intrigante of dark and
winding ways, made a mental reservation to "say a few things to Clavey"
before he had time to buy his ticket for the Dolomites.

Mary, having accomplished her purpose, swept the whole thing from her
mind and looked about her room with pleasure. The walls were ceiled
with a wood that gleamed like gold in the candle-light, and gave out a
faint scent of the forest. On the bare floor were two or three small
blue rugs, there were pretty blue counterpanes on the beds, and blue
curtains on the small windows. It looked like a young girl's room and
was indescribably sweet and fresh. Her own room at her father's camp,
on another lake many miles away, had been not unlike it. Moreover, it
was pleasantly warm, for the caretaker had made a fire in the furnace
the day before. A window was open and she could hear the soft lap of
the water among the lily pads, but there was no moon and she could see
nothing but a dim black wall on the opposite shore. And the silence!
It might not have been broken since the glacial era, when mighty masses
of ice ground these mountains into permanent form, and the air was
filled with the roaring horrors of desolation. But they had gone, and
left infinite peace behind them. That peace had endured for many
thousands of years and it was unimaginable that any but the puny sounds
of man would disturb that vast repose for thousands of years to come.
The peaks of those old Adirondacks, their