t disturbing doubt, hardly strong enough to be classified,
made her pause, wide-eyed and still, but it fled before Gaston's laugh
and jest.

With Drew's coming she grasped the subtle restlessness and comforted
herself with the thought that he who understood so much, he, who was, in
kind, like Gaston, he would clear away the elusive doubt forever.

She had never forgotten that it was Drew who had first set her feet on
the upward path; he, above all others, would be glad of her better life,
and sympathize with her happiness.

When she pondered upon Gaston's possible past, she felt guilty. What he
did not entrust to her, she had no right to consider--so she tried to
push the thought away. She was glad of so good an excuse for putting a
fretting thing aside. But it would not remain hidden. During Gaston's
absences it reared its hated head--with his return it slunk into shadow.

Taking advantage of one of Gaston's brief visits from home, Joyce had
gone to Drew, timing her call when she knew his womenkind were away. She
had an instinctive aversion to her own sex. She had thought it was
contempt for St. Ange womanhood; she did not speculate about these
others.

Her talk with the young minister, instead of clearing her sky of the
tiny cloud, had resulted in a general atmosphere of doubts and shapeless
fears that doomed her days to unhappiness, and her lonely nights to
actual misery.

Things were _not_ right. That was the overpowering conviction that grew
apace. If she knew all--all what? Well, if she insisted upon knowing
all--what would happen?

She caught her breath sharply, and frantically turned to bodily toil in
order to down the spectre which now confronted her with brazen
insistence. Things must go on as before. Ralph Drew was nothing but a
boy--what were his opinions compared to Gaston's? Gaston could do no
wrong. She was content to abide by his decree.

She sang, and turned from one task to another with determined haste. At
one moment she vowed the subject should never be thought of again; the
next, she promised herself that she would put the whole matter before
Gaston as soon as he returned, and, by so doing, prove the unimportance
of the thing. But whichever way she looked at it, she hourly grew to
dread Gaston's return. Life was never going to be the same. Something
was going to happen!

Oh, she had often had these premonitions before. Gaston laughed at them,
and called her funny names when she voiced the