pon my silence, madam."

"You are a good man." Millicent impulsively held out her hand to him.
"I have met very few so loyal or so charitable. May I wish you all
prosperity in your career?"

English Jim merely bowed as he went out, and Millicent's eyes grew dim
as she thought of her treachery to Geoffrey.

"There are good men in the world after all, though it has been my
misfortune to chiefly come across the bad," she admitted to herself.

Darkness had fallen when Thurston rode up to the ranch. He passed half
an hour alone with Millicent and went away without speaking to anyone
else. After he had gone Millicent said to Mrs. Savine:

"I start for England as soon as possible, and Mr. Thurston is going to
the railroad with me. I shall never return to Canada."

Pleading fatigue, she retired early, and for a time Mrs. Savine and
Helen sat silently in the glow of the great hearth upon which immense
logs were burning. There was no other light in the room, and each
flicker of the fire showed that Helen's face was more than usually
serious.

"Did you know that it was Mrs. Leslie Geoffrey should have married?"
asked Mrs. Savine at length.

"No," answered Helen, flushing. With feeling she added. "Perhaps I
ought to have guessed it. She leaves shortly, does the not? It will
be a relief. She must be a wicked woman, but please don't talk of her."

"That is just what I'm going to do," declared her aunt, gravely. "I
wouldn't guarantee that she is wholly good, but I blame her poison-mean
husband more than her. Anyway, she is better than you suppose her."

"I made no charge against her, and am only glad she is going," said
Helen Savine. Mrs. Savine smiled shrewdly.

"Well, I am going to show you there is nothing in that charge. Not
quite logical, is it, but sit still there and listen to me."

Helen listened, at first very much against her will, presently she grew
half-convinced, and at last wholly so. She blushed crimson as she said:

"May I be forgiven for thinking evil--but such things do happen, and
though I several times made myself believe, even against, the evidence
of my eyes, that I was wrong, appearances were horribly against her. I
am tired and will say good-night, auntie."

"Not yet," interposed Mrs. Savine, laying a detaining grasp upon her.
"Sit still, my dear, I'm only beginning. Appearances don't always
count for much. Now, there's Mrs. Christopher who started in to copy
my elixir. Oh, y