clinging together on a
spar in mid-ocean after the shipwreck of everything. Then we heard the
front door open with a great gust of wind that shook even the walls, and
the servants came running with lights, announcing that Madame had
returned, '_and in the book we read no more that night_.'"

She gave the old line with a certain bitter humour, and with the hard,
bright smile in which of old she had wrapped her weakness as in a
glittering garment. That ironical smile, worn through so many years, had
gradually changed the lines of her face, and when she looked in the
mirror she saw not herself, but the scathing critic, the amused observer
and satirist of herself.

Everett dropped his head upon his hand. "How much you have cared!" he
said.

"Ah, yes, I cared," she replied, closing her eyes. "You can't imagine
what a comfort it is to have you know how I cared, what a relief it is to
be able to tell it to some one."

Everett continued to look helplessly at the floor. "I was not sure how
much you wanted me to know," he said.

"Oh, I intended you should know from the first time I looked into your
face, when you came that day with Charley. You are so like him, that it
is almost like telling him himself. At least, I feel now that he will
know some day, and then I will be quite sacred from his compassion."

"And has he never known at all?" asked Everett, in a thick voice.

"Oh! never at all in the way that you mean. Of course, he is accustomed
to looking into the eyes of women and finding love there; when he doesn't
find it there he thinks he must have been guilty of some discourtesy. He
has a genuine fondness for every woman who is not stupid or gloomy, or
old or preternaturally ugly. I shared with the rest; shared the smiles
and the gallantries and the droll little sermons. It was quite like a
Sunday-school picnic; we wore our best clothes and a smile and took our
turns. It was his kindness that was hardest."

"Don't; you'll make me hate him," groaned Everett.

Katherine laughed and began to play nervously with her fan. "It wasn't in
the slightest degree his fault; that is the most grotesque part of it.
Why, it had really begun before I ever met him. I fought my way to him,
and I drank my doom greedily enough."

Everett rose and stood hesitating. "I think I must go. You ought to be
quiet, and I don't think I can hear any more just now."

She put out her hand and took his playfully.

"You've put in three weeks at t