he armor of her reserve she
would yield.

She answered his cheery call up the stairway in person, greeting him
silently, but with arms extended, leading him to a seat beside her,
where she buried her face in her hands and burst into tears.

"Harry has tried to see you every day, Kate," he began, patting her
shoulders lovingly in the effort to calm her. "I found him under your
window the other night; he walks the streets by the hour, then he
comes home exhausted, throws himself on his bed, and lies awake till
daylight."

The girl raised her head and looked at him for a moment. She knew
what he had come for--she knew, too, how sorry he felt for her--for
Harry--for everybody who had suffered because of this horror.

"Uncle George," she answered, choking back her tears, speaking slowly,
weighing each word--"you've known me from a little girl--ever since my
dear mother died. You have been a big brother to me many, many times and
I love you for it. If I were determined to do anything that would
hurt me, and you found it out in time, you would come and tell me so,
wouldn't you?"

St. George nodded his head in answer, but he did not interrupt. Her
heart was being slowly unrolled before him, and he would wait until it
was all bare.

"Now," she continued, "the case is reversed, and you want me to do
something which I know will hurt me."

"But you love him, Kate?"

"Yes--that is the worst part of it all," she answered with a stifled
sob--"yes, I love him." She lifted herself higher on the cushions and
put her beautiful arms above her head, her eyes looking into space as
if she was trying to solve the problem of what her present resolve would
mean to both herself and Harry.

St. George began again: "And you remember how--"

She turned impatiently and dropped one hand until it rested on his own.
He thought he had never seen her look so lovely and never so unhappy.
Then she said in pleading tones--her eyes blinded by half-restrained
tears:

"Don't ask me to REMEMBER, dear Uncle George--help me to forget! You can
do no kinder thing for both of us."

"But think of your whole future happiness, Kate--think how important it
is to you--to Harry--to everybody--that you should not shut him out of
your life."

"I have thought! God knows I have thought until sometimes I think I
shall go mad. He first breaks his promise about drinking and I forgive
him; then he yields to a sudden impulse and behaves like a mad-man and
you ask