"You have sent for me?" she said at last, still standing as she was. A
faint smile--part in humor, part in timidity, part, it seemed suddenly
to me, wistful; and all just a trifle pathetic--stirred her lips.

"'I sent my soul through the Invisible,'" said I; and stepped within
and quite aside for her to pass.

"Jimmy told the biggest lie in all his career," said I. She would have
sprung back.

"--And the greatest truth ever told in all the world. Come in, Helena
Emory. Come into my quiet home. Already, as you know, you have come
into my heart."

"I am not used to going into a gentleman's--quarters," said she: but
her foot was on the shallow stair.

"It is common to three gentlemen of the ship's company, Helena Emory,"
said I, "and we have no better place to receive our friends."

She now was in the room. I closed the door, and sprung the catch.

"At last," said I, "you are in my power!" And I bent upon her the
piercing gaze of my eagle eye.

CHAPTER XXXIX

IN WHICH ARE SEALED ORDERS

She stood before me for just a moment undecided. The twilight was
coming and the room was dim.

"Auntie will miss me," said she, "after a time."

"I have missed you all the time," was my reply.

"But you sent for me?"

"Of course I did. Doesn't this look as though I had?"

"I don't quite understand----"

"Shall I call Jimmy to explain? He called you a heartless jade----"

"The little imp! How dare he!"

"--As in fact all of our brotherhood has come to call you: 'The
heartless jade.'"

"I made fudges for him! And the little wretch told me I wasn't playing
the game! What did he mean? Oh, Harry, I wouldn't have come if I
hadn't wanted to play the game fairly. I'm sorry for what I said." She
spoke now suddenly, impulsively.

"What was it you said?"

"When I said--when I called you--a coward. I didn't mean it."

"You said it."

"But not the way you thought. I only meant, you took an unfair
advantage of a girl, running off with her, this way, and giving her no
chance to--to get away. But now you do give me a chance--you meant to,
all along--and in every way, as I've just done telling auntie, you've
been perfectly fine, perfectly splendid, perfectly bully, too! It has
been a hard place for a man, too, but--Harry, dear boy, I'll have to
say it, you've been some considerable gentleman through it all! There
now!" And she stood, aloof, agitated, very likely flushed, though I
could not tell in the dark.

"Thank