ich I
know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a
rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with
a maid.' Ask Cleigh to show you that."

Cleigh! The name swung her back to the original purpose of this visit.

"Do you know the Cleighs well?"

"I know the father. He has the gift of strong men--unforgetting and
unforgiving. I know little or nothing about the son, except that he is a
chip of the old block. Queer twist in events, eh?"

"Have you any idea what estranged them?"

"Didn't know they were at outs until the night before we sailed. They
don't speak?"

"No. And it seems so utterly foolish!"

"_Cherchez la femme!_"

"You believe that was it?"

"It is always so, always and eternally the woman. I don't mean that she is
always to blame; I mean that she is always there--in the background. But
you! I say, now, here's the job for you! Bring them together. That's your
style. For weeks now you three will be together. Within that time you'll
be able to twist both of them round your finger. I wonder if you realize
it? You're not beautiful, but you are something better--splendid. Strong
men will always be gravitating toward you, wanting comfort, peace. You're
not the kind that sets men's hearts on fire, that makes absconders, fills
the divorce courts, and all that. You're like a cool hand on a hot
forehead. And you have a voice as sweet as a bell."

Instinct--the female fear of the trap--warned Jane to be off, but
curiosity held her to the chair. She was human; and this flattery, free of
any suggestion of love-making, gave her a warming, pleasurable thrill.
Still there was a fly in the amber. Every woman wishes to be credited with
hidden fires, to possess equally the power to damn men as well as to save
them.

"Has there never been----"

"A woman? Have I not just said there is always a woman?" He was sardonic
now. "Mine, seeing me walk, laughed."

"She wasn't worth it!"

"No, she wasn't. But when we are twenty the heart is blind. So Cleigh and
the boy don't speak?"

"Cleigh hasn't injured you in any way, has he?"

"Injured me? Of course not! I am only forced by circumstance--and an
oblique sense of the comic--to make a convenience of him. And by the Lord
Harry, it's up to you to help me out!"

"I?"--bewildered.

CHAPTER XIV

Jane gazed through the doorway at the sea. There was apparently no
horizon, no telling where the sea ended and the fade