e lived for all these years
would be swept away and my old philosophy that after all it doesn't
matter much whom one marries so long as he is respectable and gives her
a good living would be vindicated. And so I have encouraged you to come
here; I have been most unconventional, I know, but I was always that--I
have cultivated your acquaintance, and, Denny, I am SO disappointed!"

"Disappointed? Then the mirage HAS cleared away?"

"On the contrary, it grows more distorted every day. I see you towering
above all your fellow humans; reaching up into a heaven so far above
them that they don't even know of its existence. I see you as really The
Man-On-the-Hill, with a vision which lays all this selfish, commonplace
world at your feet. The idealism which I thought must fade away is
justified--heightened--by the reality."

She had turned her face to him, and Grant, little as he understood the
ways of women, knew that she had made her great confession. For a moment
he held himself in check.... then from somewhere in his subconsciousness
came ringing the phrase, "Every man worth his salt.... takes what he
wants." That was Transley's morality; Transley, the Usurper, who had
bullied himself into possession of this heart which he had never won
and could never hold; Transley, the fool, frittering his days and
nights with money! He seized her in his arms, crushing down her weak
resistance; he drew her to him until, as in that day by a foothill river
somewhere in the sunny past, her lips met his and returned their caress.
He cared now for nothing--nothing in the whole world but this quivering
womanhood within his arms....

"You must go," she whispered at length. "It is late, and Frank's habits
are somewhat erratic."

He held her at arm's length, his hands upon her shoulders. "Do you
suppose that fear--of anything--can make me surrender you now?"

"Not fear, perhaps--I know it could not be fear--but good sense may do
it. It was not fear that made me send you home early from your previous
calls. It was discretion."

"Oh!" he said, a new light dawning, and he marvelled again at her
consummate artistry.

"But I must tell you," she resumed, "Frank leaves on a business trip
to-morrow night. He will be gone for some time, and I shall motor into
town to see him off. I am wondering about Wilson," she hurried on, as
though not daring to weigh her words; "Sarah will be away--I am letting
her have a little holiday--and I can't take Wilso