r nerves were too tense for petty precautions. However, Mrs.
Colman was too busy inspecting the details of Miss Hastings' toilet to
note Miss Hastings' manners.

Jane's nervousness vanished the instant she was in the doorway of the
parlor with Victor Dorn looking at her in that splendidly simple and
natural way of his. "So glad to see you," he said. "What a delightful
perfume you bring with you. I've noticed it before. I know it isn't
flowers, but it smells like flowers. With most perfumes you can smell
through the perfume to something that's the very reverse of sweet."

They were shaking hands. She said: "That nice woman who let me in
cautioned me not to put on a sick-room manner or indulge in sick-room
talk. It was quite unnecessary. You're looking fine."

"Ain't I, though?" exclaimed Victor. "I've never been so comfortable.
Just weak enough to like being waited on. You were very good to me the
night that stone knocked me over. I want to thank you, but I don't
know how. And the flowers, and the fruit--You have been so kind."

"I could do very little," said Jane, blushing and faltering. "And I
wanted to do--everything." Suddenly all energy, "Oh, Mr. Dorn, I heard
and saw it all. It was--INFAMOUS! And the lying newspapers--and all
the people I meet socially. They keep me in a constant rage."

Victor was smiling gayly. "The fortunes of war," said he. "I expect
nothing else. If they fought fair they couldn't fight at all. We, on
this side of the struggle, can afford to be generous and tolerant.
They are fighting the losing battle; they're trying to hold on to the
past, and of course it's slipping from them inch by inch. But we--we
are in step with the march of events."

When she was with him Jane felt that his cause was hers, also--was the
only cause. "When do you begin publishing your paper again?" she
asked. "As soon as you are sitting up?"

"Not for a month or so," replied he. "Not until after the election."

"Oh, I forgot about that injunction. You think that as soon as Davy
Hull's crowd is in they will let you begin again?"

He hesitated. "Not exactly that," he said. "But after the election
there will be a change."

Her eyes flashed. "And they have indicted you! I heard the newsboys
crying it and stopped and bought a paper. But I shall do something
about that. I am going straight from here to father. Ellen Clearwater
and I and Joe Wetherbe SAW. And Ellen and I will testify i