"

Forsythe turned deadly white. Jasper Kemp, whose keen eye was upon him,
saw it through the tan, saw his lips go pale and purple points of fear
start in his eyes, as he looked and looked again, and could not believe
his senses.

Furtively he darted a glance around, like one about to steal away; then,
seeing Jasper Kemp's eyes upon him, settled back with a strained look
upon his face. Once he stole a look at Margaret and caught her face all
transfigured with great joy; looked again and felt rebuked somehow by
the pureness of her maiden joy and trust.

Not once had she turned her eyes to his. He was forgotten, and somehow
he knew the look he would get if she should see him. It would be
contempt and scorn that would burn his very soul. It is only a maid now
and then to whom it is given thus to pierce and bruise the soul of a man
who plays with love and trust and womanhood for selfishness. Such a
woman never knows her power. She punishes all unconscious to herself. It
was so that Margaret Earle, without being herself aware, and by her very
indifference and contempt, showed the little soul of this puppet man to
himself.

He stole away at last when he thought no one was looking, and reached
the back of the school-house at the open door of the girls'
dressing-room, where he knew Titania would be posing in between the
acts. He beckoned her to his side and began to question her in quick,
eager, almost angry tones, as if the failure of their plans were her
fault. Had her father been at home all day? Had anything happened--any
one been there? Did Gardley come? Had there been any report from the
men? Had that short, thick-set Scotchman with the ugly grin been there?
She must remember that she was the one to suggest the scheme in the
first place, and it was her business to keep a watch. There was no
telling now what might happen. He turned, and there stood Jasper Kemp
close to his elbow, his short stature drawn to its full, his thick-set
shoulders squaring themselves, his ugly grin standing out in bold
relief, menacingly, in the night.

The young man let forth some words not in a gentleman's code, and turned
to leave the frightened girl, who by this time was almost crying; but
Jasper Kemp kept pace with Forsythe as he walked.

"Was you addressing me?" he asked, politely; "because I could tell you a
few things a sight more appropriate for you than what you just handed to
me."

Forsythe hurried around to the front of the sc