enough to him to show me just a
corner of her heart. Even if she loves him it's what I called it--an awful
sacrifice--a man dying with consumption. If she doesn't--except as the
friend of her early girlhood, when she didn't know men or her own
heart--Juliet, it's impious."

"Roger, dear, keep hold of yourself," Juliet replied. "You're too strong
and fine to want to come between her and her own decision--if she has made
it."

"If you were a man," said he hotly, "would you let a woman marry
you--dying?"

"Yes," answered Juliet stoutly, "if she insisted."

"Women are capable of saying anything in an argument," he growled. "I say
it's outrageous to let her do it. She doesn't love him--she does love me,"
he blurted.

Juliet turned to him anxiously. "Roger, do you know what you are saying?"

"Yes, I do. I've got to tell somebody, and there's nobody but you--you
perfect woman. If ever a man knew a thing without its being put into words
I know that. It was only a look, weeks ago, but I'm as sure of it as I am
of myself. I've had nothing but coolness from her since, but that's in
self-defense. And the thought that, loving me, she's going to give herself
to him--a wreck--do you wonder it's driving me mad?"

"You ought not to have told me this," said Juliet, tears in her voice. "If
Rachel is doing this it's because she's sure she ought----"

"Of course she is. And that's why I tell you. You have more influence with
her than any one. Can't you show her that duty, the most urgent in the
world, never requires a thing like that? Let her be his friend to the
last--the sort of friend she knows how to be, with a warm hand in his cold
one. But never his----"

The doctor grew choky with his vehemence, and stopped short. Juliet was
silent, full of distress. She thought of the two men--Huntington, a frail
ghost, in the grip of a deadly illness, yet fighting it desperately, and
desperately clinging to the girl he loved: a clever fellow, educated as a
mining engineer, successful, even beginning to be distinguished in his
work until his health gave out; Barnes, the embodiment of strength,
standing high in his profession, life and the world before him, a fit mate
for the girl who deserved the best there could be for her--Juliet thought
of them both and found her heart aching for them--and for Rachel Redding.

They were slowly approaching the brown house at the foot of the hill, the
errand at the Evanstons' forgotten, when suddenly a f