id for the madness ever since. Now
when it is too late I know what I have lost!" she gasped with a catch
of the breath that was a sob repressed.

There was a heavy step on the stairway, and Millicent shrank with the
nausea of disgust as somebody tried the door. She drew a deep breath
of relief, when the steps passed on unevenly.

The memories returned. They led her through a long succession of
mistakes, falsehoods, slights and wrongs up to the present, and she
shivered again, while a heavy drop of blood splashed warm upon her
hand. Then she was mistress of herself once more, and a hazy purpose
grew into definite shape. She could at least warn the man whom she had
wronged, and so make partial reparation. It was not a wish for revenge
upon her husband which prompted her to desire that amends might be made
for her past treachery. Smarting with shame, she longed only to escape
from him. After the day's revelations she could never forgive that
blow.

Millicent was a woman of action, and it was a relief to consider
practical details. She decided that a telegram might lie for days at
the station nearest the canyon, while what distance divided one from the
other she did not know. There was no train before noon the next day,
and she feared that the plot might be put into execution as soon as
Geoffrey left his camp. Therefore, she must reach it before he did so.
Afterwards--but she would not consider the future then, and, if she
could but warn him, nothing mattered greatly, neither physical peril
nor the risk of her good name.

It was long before Millicent Leslie had thought all this out, but when
once her way seemed clear, exhausted by conflicting emotions, she sank
into heavy slumber, and the sun was high before she awakened. Leslie
had gone to his office, and she ate a little, chose her thickest furs,
and waited for noon in feverish suspense. Her husband might return and
prevent her departure by force. She feared that, should he guess her
intention, a special locomotive might be hired, even after the train
had started. It was, therefore, necessary to slip away without word or
sign, unless, indeed, she could mislead him, and, smiling mirthlessly,
she laid an open letter inside her writing-case.

At last the time came, and she went out carrying only a little
hand-bag, passed along the unfrequented water side to the station by
the wharf, and ensconced herself in the corner of the car nearest the
locomotive, c