"What?"

"I am not at liberty to tell you, Miss Barrison," I said, striving to
appear shocked.

"It would not make any difference anyway," she observed, calmly. "I'm
not afraid of anything in the world."

"Yes, you are!" I said. "Listen to me; I'd be awfully glad to have you
go--I--I really had no idea how I'd miss you--miss such pleasant
companionship. But it is not possible--" The recollection of Professor
Farrago's aversion suddenly returned. "No, no," I said, "it can't be
done. I'm most unhappy over this mistake of mine; please don't look as
though you were ready to cry!"

"Don't discharge me, Mr. Gilland," she said.

"I'm a brute to do it, but I must; I was a bigger brute to engage you,
but I did. Don't--please don't look at me that way, Miss Barrison! As
a matter of fact, I'm tender-hearted and I can't endure it."

"If you only knew what I had been through you wouldn't send me away,"
she said, in a low voice. "It took my last penny to clothe myself and
pay for the last lesson at the college of stenography. I--I lived on
almost nothing for weeks; every respectable place was filled; I walked
and walked and walked, and nobody wanted me--they all required people
with experience--and how can I have experience until I begin, Mr.
Gilland? I was perfectly desperate when I went to see you, knowing
that you had advertised for a man--" The slightest break in her clear
voice scared me.

"I'm not going to cry," she said, striving to smile. "If I must go, I
will go. I--I didn't mean to say all this--but--but I've been so--so
discouraged;--and you were not very cross with me--"

Smitten with remorse, I picked up her hand and fell to patting it
violently, trying to think of something to say. The exercise did not
appear to stimulate my wits.

"Then--then I'm to go with you?" she asked.

"I will see," I said, weakly, "but I fear there's trouble ahead for
this expedition."

"I fear there is," she agreed, in a cheerful voice. "You have a rifle
and a cage in your luggage. Are you going to trap Indians and have me
report their language?"

"No, I'm not going to trap Indians," I said, sharply. "They may trap
us--but that's a detail. What I want to say to you is this: Professor
Farrago detests unmarried women, and I forgot it when I engaged you."

"Oh, is that all?" she asked, laughing.

"Not all, but enough to cost me my position."

"How absurd! Why, there are millions of things we might
do!--millions!"

"What's o