in
the world, "how can I be of any use to you if you will not open your
eyes? He ran away. We don't know of course just from what; but we do know
this: Max Riatt is the best match that has yet presented himself, and
that Christine is the last girl in the world to ignore that simple fact.
Come, Ned, even if you do love her, you may as well admit the girl is not
a perfect fool. Fate, accident, or possibly her own clever manoeuvering
put the game into her hands. The question is, how did she play it? I know
what I'd have done, but I don't believe she would. I think she probably
tried to make him believe that she was hopelessly compromised in the eyes
of the world, and that there was no course open to an honorable man but
to ask her to marry him."

"I can't imagine Christine playing such a part."

"I tell you, you never do the poor girl justice. If she did that--and the
chances are she did--then his running away is most encouraging. It means,
in your own delightful language, that he did not fall for it--did not
want to run any risk of compromising her, if marriage was the
consequence."

"But, Nancy, Christine almost admitted that--that he tried to make
love to her."

"I can't see what that has to do with it, or what difference it makes,"
replied Mrs. Almar. "However, too much importance should not be attached
to such admissions. I have sometimes made them myself when the facts did
not bear me out. No woman likes to confess, especially to an old adorer
like you, that she has spent so many hours alone with a man and he has
not made love to her."

Hickson shook his head. "I'm not clever enough to be able to explain it,"
he said, "but I received the clearest impression from her that she had
been through some painful experience."

"Good," said Nancy. "Do you know the most painful experience she could
have been through?"

"No, what?"

"If he hadn't paid the slightest attention to her; and that, my dear
brother, is what I am inclined to think took place. No, the game is still
on; only now she'll have the Usshers to help her. This is no time for me
to lie in bed."

Ned looked at her doubtfully. "I thought I'd try and sleep a
little," he said.

"The best thing you can do," she returned. "Lucie! Lucie! Where are the
bells in this house! What privations one suffers for staying away from
home! Oh, yes, here it is," and she caught the atom of enamel and gold
dangling at the head of her bed, and rang it without ceasing unti