, but we
Easterns are not different from the Westerns in that direction. All of
us have a secret chamber in our lives."

"Still," urged Sprague, "I cannot conceive of you, signore, being afraid
of anything."

"I am not often in a communicative mood," said Ricordo; "I think I am
to-night. Perhaps it is because I have received so much kindness. I am
profoundly impressed," and here he bowed to Mr. Castlemaine and Olive,
"by the fact that I, an alien, am received into the home of a
representative of what is regarded as a proud and exclusive race. Never
can I forget such hospitality. But one thing keeps me from communicating
my thoughts: I would not willingly give pain to the signorina."

"To me, Signor Ricordo?" said Olive. "Pray, how am I concerned?"

"Directly not at all; but, as every woman is a champion of her sex, a
great deal. And I would not desire even to suggest a thought that would
seem to reflect on the sex to which the signorina adds so much lustre."

"But surely I am not responsible for my sex, signore," said Olive, with
a laugh. Again he had cast a kind of spell on her, and she wanted to
hear what he had to say.

"Ah well, then, let me be communicative," said Ricordo. "I said I had
never married because I was afraid. I told the truth. Forgive me if I
seem sentimental; but once, years ago--ah, how many I do not like to
think--I might have yielded to love. Others had done so, and why not I?
But I had a friend, a man whom I loved beyond all others. For years we
had been more than brothers, his thoughts were mine, and mine were his.
Then he fell in love with a woman, beautiful, and true, and good--at
least, so we believed. She became his lode-star, his hope, his joy, and
I naturally became as nothing to him. I did not grow angry at that. My
only desire was that he should be happy, and as he found happiness in
her love, what was I? He was not an angel, not altogether a good man,
and often in my love for him I tried to reclaim him; I failed; but where
I failed this woman succeeded. Ah, great Allah! how he loved her! He
became her slave, and yet I rejoiced because she was lifting him to
heaven. He was on his way to becoming a great man in the East, and
then--this woman, because of some imperfection in his past--what do you
call it?--jilted him. My friend was an intense kind of man. He had given
his hope, his faith, his love, to this woman, and then, without giving
him an opportunity of explaining himself, she t