ight," he said stiffly, but it is doubtful that the word
of leave-taking was anything more than a mode of expressing displeasure,
or that departure would immediately have succeeded upon his rising from
his chair, had not a sound of coughing from the neighboring room called
up before him an image of Harriet Estelle, wide awake, with a stern and
feverish eye fixed on the clock.

He was startled into a consciousness of the lateness of the hour.

"Good night!" he repeated in a guilty whisper. "I daren't look at my
watch. I'm afraid I've kept you shockingly late."

* * * * *

The night, when Gerald went out into it, was quieter and dryer. The
streets were altogether empty. He had quite forgotten having felt ill
earlier in the evening, and did not remember it even when he found his
teeth chattering as a result of coming out into the penetrating night
air after sitting so close to the fire. A thing he did remember, as he
took out the large iron key to the door of home, was that after all
Helen Aurora telling him her story he did not know how she came to be
Mrs. Hawthorne. There must have been a second marriage there in Denver,
one of those little-considered episodes in American life, perhaps, that
are hardly thought worth mentioning. She sometimes spoke of "the judge."
She had spoken to-night of a doctor, son of the judge. No, he decided,
it could not be either of them. The second husband, whoever he had been,
had clearly not been important, and he was dead, for Mrs. Foss had told
him explicitly that Aurora was a real, and not what is called in America
a grass, widow. From this second husband it must have been that she
derived her wealth.

CHAPTER XIV

Even had Aurora been able to apprehend the measure and quality, the fine
shades, of Gerald's dislike to the thought of her doing a turn in the
society variety-show, it is more than doubtful that she would have let
it weigh against her strong desire to take part. It is fine to have such
delicate sensibilities regarding the dignity of another, but it is
foolishness to entertain anything of the sort regarding your own.

"If there's one thing I love, it's to dress up and play I'm somebody
else," Aurora had said when first the subject of the benefit performance
was discussed.

Mrs. Hawthorne was so certain to give generously to the cause of the
convalescents that it was felt only fair to flatter her by seeking to
enlist the