invisible burdens, his head shaking doggedly.

"Yes, Kitty, yes--" His voice was big but low, the voice of his whole
being bent to soothe. He came to her side and reached down to take one
of the frail, blue-veined hands between his own two, huge and hairy.
They closed upon hers with a kind of awkward effectiveness.

"Of course you had to come to me, but I'm afraid all I can do is to
brace you."

"I wanted you to be with me. I couldn't have borne it alone, Fred--his
being here--Kitty's child."

"And you say he doesn't know?"

"I'm certain of it, and Eleanor Laithe doesn't know; but those are
little things when I know."

"We'll see, Kitty--we'll see. Perhaps I can help. But I suspect it's one
of those matters where you must be your own guide. You'll act as you
feel; not as I think--not even as you think."

"Ellen is going to the door," she whispered, almost fiercely, bracing
herself in the chair.

As the maid held back the curtain at the doorway, Ewing advanced
uncertainly, an embarrassed smile on his lips, the look of one who would
be agreeable if he knew how. He saw Mrs. Lowndes stiffly fixed in her
chair, her white-crowned head thrown back, and he would have taken her
hand but she diverted him from this.

"Mr. Ewing, my old friend, Dr. Birley."

Her voice was no longer halting and shallow, as it had been the moment
before when her barriers were down. Ewing swiftly confirmed his
impression of the previous day: this was a lady of immeasurable pride, a
one-time beauty who perhaps treasured the authority her charms had once
conferred upon her, wielding it with little old-fashioned graces. She
seemed to him at the moment to be an almost excessively mannered person,
interesting, but unapproachable.

He stopped on his way to her chair and shook hands with the big man, who
had come forward. This person was quite as formidable as the curious old
lady, but he was eminently kind of look.

"Sit here, Mr. Ewing." He indicated a chair.

"I asked you to come and see me--" The old lady had begun in low, even
tones, but paused, and Ewing was again struck by this seeming of
agitation which had made him remark her the day before.

"Mrs. Lowndes was interested to hear of your life in the West," said the
big man easily, "and she was good enough to ask me to meet you also. We
were both interested in knowing of you from the Bartells."

"There is so much we do not understand here in New York," put in Mrs.
Lowndes, rather va