forgive and forget?"

"There is nothing to forgive, but neither of us must forget, again. Not
ever again!" She was struggling for composure, her hard-clenched hand
pressed against her heart. "I never dreamed--"

He laughed harshly. "You never dreamed that in the veins of men there
could be red, as well as white corpuscles? Were there nothing but
emasculates among your circle of acquaintance in the vaunted 'Four
Hundred'?"

Wincing at his coarseness as though it had been a blow, she went over
and leaned against the casement of the window, looking silently out at
the stars. After a time he took up his sombrero and moved toward the
door, pausing at the threshold to courteously bid her good night. At the
sound of his voice she turned quickly.

"Wait!" She motioned to an easy chair. "Sit down, please. There is
something which in justice to us both, must be said before you go." He
took the seat indicated and she turned again to the window. For quite a
time she stared mutely into the night, the man waiting in patient
silence. When she finally spoke it was in a tone so low that he had to
bend forward to catch the words.

"You were right when you said that I was afraid; but it is not
convention that has made me a coward. It is of myself that I am afraid,
the new, strange self that has evolved since I came here, a year ago,
filled with the pitiful conceit that I knew life--and men--thoroughly.

"Remember that I lived In a different world, in an artificial and
enervating atmosphere where nothing is real but Rank, nothing sweet but
Station, nothing precious but Money. As a girl I was sold to the highest
bidder; he gave me all that wealth and genealogy could give, and up to
six months ago I kept faith. Not one of the countless men with whom I
amused myself ever aroused in me even one moment's serious thought; for
twelve weary years I played at the inane game of platonics, with no
further effect than to come finally to regard the vaunted 'love' of the
poets as a libel on human intelligence. It had been proffered me in all
tongues, in all climes, at all times, by all sorts and conditions of
men; at first to my listless amusement and at last to my contemptuous
disgust. It was part of my strained and unnatural environment; I wore
these 'loves' on my sleeve as I wore hothouse orchids on my corsage,
finding their emanations as nauseous and unwholesome.

"I was fed on sweets of flattery and wine of adulation, when all the
time I wa