rrific,
heart-breaking struggle it would be. Or did he wish to put her to the
test, to find out if her professed determination to live a new and
cleaner life was genuine and sincere. If that was his motive, surely
she had been tried enough. Then, as she gave herself up to reflection,
doubts began to creep in, doubts of herself, doubts of him. If he
really loved her, truly and unselfishly, would he let her suffer in
this way, would he have so completely deserted her? It did not once
occur to her that John, being thousands of miles away, could not
possibly realize her present plight. A sudden feeling of rebellion came
over her. She began to nourish resentment that he should show such
little concern, that he should have taken no steps to keep informed of
her circumstances.

For a long-time she sat in moody silence, engrossed in deep thought,
listening only abstractedly to the street sounds without. Presently her
glance, wandering aimlessly around the room, fell on the letter she had
just received from Goldfield. She picked it up, as if about to read it;
then, as if in anger, she threw it impatiently from her. Leaning
forward on the table, her face buried in her two hands, she broke down
completely:

"I can't stand it--I just simply can't stand it," she moaned to
herself.

A sudden knock on the door caused her to sit up with a jump. Rising,
confused, as if surprised in some guilty action, she called out:

"What is it?"

"A lady to see you!" cried Annie's shrill voice on the other side of
the door.

Laura went to open.

"To see me?" she exclaimed in unaffected surprise.

"It's me--Elfie," called out a familiar voice below. "May I come up?"

Laura started. Her face turned red and white in turns. Elfie St. Clair!
Should she see her, or say she was out? Yet, why shouldn't she see her?
She needed some one like Elfie to cheer her up. Drying her eyes, she
quickly pulled herself together, and hastened to the top of the stairs.
Her voice, trembling with suppressed excitement, almost unable to
control the agitation that suddenly seized upon her, she cried out:

"Is that you, Elfie?"

"Yes, shall I come up?"

"Why, of course--of course!"

Panting and flushed from the extraordinary exertion of climbing two
flights of stairs, Elfie at last appeared, gorgeously gowned in the
extreme style affected by ladies who contract alliances with wealthy
gentlemen without the formality of going through a marriage ceremony.
Her dre