revealed, the place seemed paradise itself.

Lois crept very close to Alban during this part of the entertainment,
nor did he repulse her. Moments there were undeniably when he had a
great tenderness toward her; moments when she lay in his embrace as some
pure gift from this haven of darkness and of evil, a fragile helpless
figure of a girlhood he idolized. Then, perchance, he loved her as Lois
Boriskoff hungered for love, with the supreme devotion, the abject
surrender of his manhood.

No meaner taint of passion inspired these outbreaks, nor might the most
critical student of character have found them blameworthy. Alban
Kennedy's rule of life defied scrutiny. His ignorance was often that of
a child, his faith that of a trusting woman--and yet he had traits of
strength which would have done no dishonor to those in the highest
places. Lois loved him and there were hours when he responded wholly to
her love and yet had no more thought of evil in his response than of
doing any of those forbidding things against which his dead mother had
schooled him so tenderly. Here were two little outcasts from the
civilized world--why should they not creep close together for that
sympathy and loving kindness which destiny had denied them.

"I darsn't be late to-night, Alb," Lois said when the biograph was over
and they had left the hall, "you know how father was. I must go back and
get his supper."

"Did he really mean all that about the copper mines and his invention?"
Alban asked her in his practical way, and added, "Of course I couldn't
understand much of it, but I think it's pretty awful to see a man
crying, don't you, Lois?"

"Father does that often," she rejoined, "often when he's alone. I might
not be in the world at all, Alb, for all he thinks of me. Some one
robbed him, you know, and just lately he thinks he's found the man in
London. What's the good of it all--who's goin' to help a poor Pole get
his rights back? Oh, yer bloomin' law and order, a lot we sees of you in
Thrawl Street, so help me funny. That's what I tell father when he talks
about his rights. We'll take ours home with us to Kingdom come and
nobody know much about 'em when we get there. A sight of good it is
cryin' out for them in this world, Alb--now ain't it, dear?"

Alban was in the habit of taking questions very seriously, and he took
this one just as though she had put it in the best of good faith.

"I can't make head or tail of things, Lois," he said