s very pale, but into her white
face there surged a sudden flood of color, crimsoning it from brow
to throat.

"He didn't--hurt me," she stammered. "He was--quite mad--but he
didn't--hurt me."

She heard Falconer draw his breath with a queer, whistling sound. He
pushed back his hat and drew his hand over his forehead.

"It's--impossible," he persisted thickly, but there was bitter
relief in his voice. "The blackguard--the filthy blackguard!"

"Don't, don't, please don't! I can't bear to think of him. I've done
with even the thought of him.... He was trying to make me marry him.
I told you he was quite mad."

Sharply Falconer pulled himself together, in the tense effort to
meet this horrible astonishment like a man.

"And Hill got you out?"

"Yes.... He got me out."

"But the Evershams--they don't know----?"

"No, no, I've told no one. I'm not going to tell anyone. No one
knows of it but you and me--and Billy Hill."

"That's right." He drew another long breath, this time in sharp
relief. The color was coming back to his face, splotching it
unevenly. "You mustn't tell anyone. You don't know how a beastly
thing like that would spread. You mustn't let anyone have a hint.
Not even my sister."

Arlee's eyes were in shadow. Her voice came slowly. "They would
think so badly of me?"

"No--not of you--but it's the kind of thing, the impossible
things--A girl simply can't afford----"

"She can't afford to have even speculation against her," Arlee
finished quietly, but a little pulse in her throat was beating away
like mad. She knew he spoke the simple truth, but the taste of it
was bitter as gall to her mouth. However she had humbled herself in
secret self-communion, she had known no such shame as this.... She
felt cheapened ... tarnished....

"It's beastly--but she can't," he jerkily agreed, but with evident
relief at her sensible understanding. Perhaps he had remembered
Billy's fearful prophecy of the conversation with which the
adventure would supply her. "But of course nobody has a notion----"

"Not a notion. And I shan't give them any--not till I'm a
white-haired old lady in Mechlin caps, and _then_ I shall make up
for lost time by boring all my world with the story of my romantic
youth and the wild deeds done for me!" She laughed airily, pride
high in her face, hiding her secret hurts.

"And Hill got you out," Falconer repeated, with a sudden twinge of
jealous envy in his young voice. "He--he's a lucky