ice. It--makes me
feel like--well, not at all right. You can see that, can't you, Nolan?"

"I am afraid I can."

"But he is your husband," protested Eveley. "Isn't it your place as his
wife to--to--"

"Do you mean my duty, dear?" asked Miriam, smiling faintly. "I am surprised
at you, Eve. No dear, it isn't. Your theory that duty is happiness is half
right. But a woman has one other duty also--self-respect. I am all packed
up, dear, and going to-morrow. You do not mind my not leaving my address,
do you? I want to go off very quietly by myself. I do not want Gordon to
know. I am afraid he will blame himself for it. You will make him see that
it was not he, at all, won't you? And after it is all over, I shall write,
or maybe come to see you. You will ask him not to look for me, won't you?
There has not been a thing serious between us, Eveley, you believe that,
don't you?"

"Of course I do. I know it. I've chaperoned you two till I am fairly sick
of it."

Miriam smiled again. "Be sure to tell him everything I said, will you?"

Nolan and Eveley were very quiet after she had gone. And Eveley cried a
little.

"I hope she will be happy," she said tearfully.

"She will be. Gordon will wait for her, and not crowd her. He is like me.
He can talk to a woman without loving her."

"You can, at least."

"At least, I do not talk about it all the time," he amended. "What I mean
is that his affection is for the one, and not for the sex."

"Do you think she did right, Nolan?"

"I do not think it is my duty to judge," he evaded cleverly. "She had one
chance for happiness, and she lost. Now she is to have one more. We are
her friends, and we love her. We can not begrudge her one more
opportunity, can we?"

"No indeed, and you put it very nicely," she said more comfortably.
"Isn't it nice that we do not believe in duty? But we shall miss them.
They were very nice playmates for us, as well as for each other--Nolan,
there was something sort of sweet about Lem, after all? Something very
human and lovable and--but of course it was Miriam's duty to be happy."

CHAPTER XIII

SHE FINDS A FOREIGNER

Eveley had very nearly lost faith in assimilation. She had thought it
over carefully, attempted it conscientiously and decided it could not be
done.

"One individuality can not be absorbed by another," she would say very
sagely. "Whether it is husbands and wives, or whether it is nations. The
theorists are right in stating