in spite of her bravest efforts, the
girl was almost fainting under the strain of these questions.

"You dear, darling child," said Lloyd, as a wave of pity took him, "I'm a
brute to make you talk about this."

But Alice answered anxiously: "You understand it's nothing I have done that
is wrong, nothing I'm ashamed of?"

"Of course," he assured her. "Let's drop it. We'll never speak of it
again."

"I want to speak of it. It's something strange in my thoughts, dear,
or--or my soul," she went on timidly, "something that's--different and
that--frightens me--especially at night."

"What do you expect?" he answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "when you spend
all your time in a cold, black church full of bones and ghosts? Wait till I
get you away from there, wait till we're over in God's country, living in a
nice little house out in Orange, N. J., and I'm commuting every day."

"What's commuting, Lloyd?"

"You'll find out--you'll like it, except the tunnel. And you'll be so happy
you'll never think about your soul--no, sir, and you won't be afraid
nights, either! Oh, you beauty, you little beauty!" he burst out, and was
about to take her in his arms again when the guard came forward to warn
them that the time was nearly up, they had three minutes more.

"All right," nodded Lloyd, and as he turned to Alice, she saw tears in his
eyes. "It's tough, but never mind. You've made a man of me, little one, and
I'll prove it. I used to have a sort of religion and then I lost it, and
now I've got it again, a new religion and a new creed. It's short and easy
to say, but it's all I need, and it's going to keep me game through this
whole rotten business. Want to hear my creed? You know it already, darling,
for you taught it to me. Here it is: 'I believe in Alice'; that's all,
that's enough. Let me kiss you."

"Lloyd," she whispered as he bent toward her, "can't you trust me with that
woman's name?"

He drew back and looked at her half reproachfully and her cheeks flushed.
She would not have him think that she could bargain for her lips, and
throwing her arms about him, she murmured: "Kiss me, kiss me as much as you
like. I am yours, yours."

Then there was a long, delicious, agonizing moment of passion and pain
until the guard's gruff voice came between them.

"One moment," Kittredge said, and then to the clinging girl: "Why do you
ask that woman's name when you know it already?"

Wide-eyed, she faced him and shook her head.