hem they--well,
they'll make it a success for me." Mrs. Fisher clasped her hands
enthusiastically. "Do you know, Lily, the more I think of my idea the
better I like it--quite as much for you as for myself. The Gormers have
both taken a tremendous fancy to you, and the trip to Alaska
is--well--the very thing I should want for you just at present."

Miss Bart lifted her eyes with a keen glance. "To take me out of my
friends' way, you mean?" she said quietly; and Mrs. Fisher responded with
a deprecating kiss: "To keep you out of their sight till they realize how
much they miss you."

Miss Bart went with the Gormers to Alaska; and the expedition, if it did
not produce the effect anticipated by her friend, had at least the
negative advantage of removing her from the fiery centre of criticism and
discussion. Gerty Farish had opposed the plan with all the energy of her
somewhat inarticulate nature. She had even offered to give up her visit
to Lake George, and remain in town with Miss Bart, if the latter would
renounce her journey; but Lily could disguise her real distaste for this
plan under a sufficiently valid reason.

"You dear innocent, don't you see," she protested, "that Carry is quite
right, and that I must take up my usual life, and go about among people
as much as possible? If my old friends choose to believe lies about me I
shall have to make new ones, that's all; and you know beggars mustn't be
choosers. Not that I don't like Mattie Gormer--I DO like her: she's kind
and honest and unaffected; and don't you suppose I feel grateful to her
for making me welcome at a time when, as you've yourself seen, my own
family have unanimously washed their hands of me?"

Gerty shook her head, mutely unconvinced. She felt not only that Lily was
cheapening herself by making use of an intimacy she would never have
cultivated from choice, but that, in drifting back now to her former
manner of life, she was forfeiting her last chance of ever escaping from
it. Gerty had but an obscure conception of what Lily's actual experience
had been: but its consequences had established a lasting hold on her pity
since the memorable night when she had offered up her own secret hope to
her friend's extremity. To characters like Gerty's such a sacrifice
constitutes a moral claim on the part of the person in whose behalf it
has been made. Having once helped Lily, she must continue to help her;
and helping her, must believe in her, because faith