r in his powerful arms and had given her a
man's assurance: "I mean that you're to have all the help you want--that
you're to look to me for your strength."

She reasoned shrewdly: Harboro wasn't the sort of man people would tell
things to--about her. They would know what to expect: intense passion,
swift punishment.

And yet as she watched Antonia go away down the road, suggesting supine
submission rather than a friend in need, her heart failed her. Had she
done wisely? Fectnor had never stepped aside for any man. He seemed
actually to believe that none must deny him the things he wanted. He
seemed an insane creature when you thwarted him. There was something
terrible about his rages.

She imagined seemingly impossible things: that Fectnor would come to the
house--perhaps while Harboro was there. He might kill Harboro.

Alas, the evil she had done in those other days loomed before her now in
its true light: not merely as evil deeds, definitely ended with their
commission, but as fearful forces that went on existing, to visit her
again and destroy her.

She began to hope that Fectnor would actually come to her--now, before
Harboro came home. At the worst she might save Harboro, and there was even
a chance that she could make Fectnor see her position as she saw it--that
she could persuade him to be merciful to her. Surely for the sake of
security and peace in all the years that lay before her.... A definite
purpose dawned in her eyes. She went to her room and began deliberately to
choose her most becoming street costume.

She was ready to go out when Antonia returned.

"Did you find him?" she asked.

Yes, the old woman had found him and delivered the message. He had sent no
word in return; he had only glared at the bearer of the message and had
cursed her.

"Well, never mind," said Sylvia soothingly. It occurred to her that it
must be a sad thing to be an old woman, and a Mexican, and to have to
serve as the wire over which the electric current flowed--and to feel only
the violence of the current without comprehending the words it carried.

And now to find Fectnor--for this was what she meant to do.

She would see him on the street, where publicity would protect her, even
if there were no friends to take her part. She would see him on the street
and explain why she could not meet him any more, why he must not ask it.
Certainly it would not look very well for her to be seen talking to him;
but she could not h