Company, and would prefer to enter into partnership with Chandos, it is
none of my business, I suppose. I will give you one warning, however,
because I promised your sister to take care of you." Her skin flamed
scarlet at that. "That fellow is not a gentleman exactly, and he is a
very dangerous acquaintance for any woman to make."

"He is a friend of yours," she interrupted.

"That is a natural mistake on your part," he replied,--"natural, but
still a mistake. He is _not_ a friend of mine. As I before observed, he
is not exactly a gentleman--not to put too fine a point upon it--from a
moral point of view. We won't discuss the matter further."

They had parted bad friends that night. Mollie was restive under his
cool decisiveness for various reasons; he was irritated because he felt
he had failed, and had lost ground instead of gaining it. So sometimes
since, he had fancied that she had not wholly forgiven him, and yet
there were times when she was so softly submissive that he felt himself
in some slight danger of being as much touched and as fairly bewitched
as he was when Dolly turned her attention to him. Still she was
frequently far from amiable, and upon more than one occasion he found
her not precisely as polite as she might have been.

"You are not as amiable, Mollie," he said to her once, "as you used
to be. We were very good friends in the old days. I suppose you are
outgrowing me. I should be afraid to offer you a bunch of camellias now
as a token of my affection."

He smiled down at her indolently as he said it, and before he had
finished he began to feel uncomfortable. Her eyelids drooped and her
head drooped, and she looked sweetly troubled.

"I know I am not as good as I used to be," she admitted. "I know it
without being told. Sometimes," very suddenly, "I think I must be
growing awfully wicked."

"Well," he commented, "at least one must admit that is a promising state
of mind, and augurs well for future repentance."

She shook her head.

"No, it doesn't," she answered him, "and that is the bad side of it. I
am getting worse every day of my life."

"Is it safe," he suggested, cynically,--"is it safe for an innocent
individual to cultivate your acquaintance? Would it not be a good plan
to isolate yourself from society until you feel that the guileless ones
may approach you without fear of contamination? You alarm me."

She lifted up her head, her eyes flashing.

"_You_ are safe," she said; "s