word was law with him, though he had frequently broken
the law, and her judgment was infallible.

CHAPTER NINE

_Nan and Gabriel_

Gabriel renewed his enthusiasm for Bethune as soon as he had an
opportunity to see Nan. These opportunities became rarer and rarer as
the days went by. Sometimes she was friendly and familiar, as on the day
when she went home with him to hear the story of poor Margaret Gaither;
but oftener she was cool and dignified, and appeared to be inclined to
patronise her old friend and comrade. This was certainly her attitude
when Gabriel began to sing the praises of Francis Bethune when, on one
occasion, he met her on the street.

"I'm sure it is very good of you, Gabriel, to speak so kindly of Mr.
Bethune," she said. "No doubt he deserves it all. He also says some very
nice things about you, so I've heard. Nonny says there's some sort of an
agreement between you--'you tickle me and I'll tickle you.' Oh, there's
nothing for you to blush about, Gabriel," she went on very seriously.
"Nonny may laugh at it, but I think it speaks well for both you and Mr.
Bethune."

Gabriel made no reply, and as he stood there looking at Nan, and
realising for the first time what he had only dimly suspected before,
that they could no longer be comrades and chums, he presented a very
uncomfortable spectacle. He was the picture of awkwardness. His hands
and his feet were all in his way, and for the first time in his life he
felt cheap. Nan had suddenly loomed up as a woman grown. It is true that
she resolutely refused to follow the prevailing fashion and wear
hoop-skirts, but this fact and her long dress simply gave emphasis to
the fact that she was grown.

"Well, Nan, I'm very sorry," said Gabriel, by way of saying something.
He spoke the truth without knowing why.

"Sorry! Why should you be sorry?" cried Nan. "I think you have
everything to make you glad. You have your Mr. Bethune, and no longer
than yesterday I heard Eugenia Claiborne say that you are the handsomest
man she ever saw--yes, she called you a man. She declared that she never
knew before that curly hair could be so becoming to a man. And Margaret
says that you and Eugenia would just suit each other, she a blonde and
you a brunette."

Gabriel blushed again in spite of himself, and laughed, too--laughed at
the incongruity of the situation. This Nan, with her long gingham frock,
and her serious ways, was no more like the Nan he had known than