tered her office on the morning of the second
day after the publication of the charges against Felix Brand, she
found her employer already there, but sitting moodily at his desk, his
head in his hands.

As she came forward, exclaiming joyfully and making anxious inquiries
about his welfare, he shrank back for a bare instant, with a slight
turning away, as of one who fears observation. But he quickly
recovered himself, rose with his usual deferential politeness and gave
her cordial greeting. She noted that he looked well, although his face
still bore a harrowed expression. A something out of the ordinary in
his appearance her eyes soon resolved into the fact that his dark,
waving hair, which previously he had always worn rather long and
parted in the middle, was so short that it curled closely over his
head.

"I've seen the papers," he told her, "and I'm quite flattered to find
I'm of enough consequence to have such a fuss made over me just
because I left the city for a few days. If I had dreamed there would
be this sort of an ado I'd have told you where I was going. But my
idea was to keep my whereabouts quiet while I went down into West
Virginia, in the mountains, to look into the proposition of developing
a marble quarry. I expected when I left to return in three or four
days, but it was necessary to go so far on horseback that I couldn't
get back that soon and I was so far from the telegraph that I couldn't
communicate with you."

"Every one was very anxious, and, down in my heart, I was, too, but I
told everybody that it was all right, that you were just away on
business and that I expected you back any minute."

"Yes, I saw what a good face you put on it when the reporters insisted
on knowing everything you knew, or guessed, or could make up. I'm
grateful to you, Miss Marne, for the very sensible stand you took.
You showed sense and prudence and did all that you could to stop that
absurd fuss. If I should happen to go away again unexpectedly,--" he
hesitated, wincing ever so little, but quickly went on: "My deal fell
through this time, but I may have to go again, although I hope not,
for it's a beastly journey. But if I should, and there should be any
disturbance about it, you can say frankly that I've gone to look at
some land in the West Virginia mountains, away off the railroad, so
that it is impossible to get hold of me until I return to civilization
again."

He stopped for a moment, as though turning so