u know. Pardon me for speaking to you of such intimate
feelings. I know that it is not customary, but I have thought that you
might aid me."

"Was it for such a reason that you gave me a pass to Richmond and helped
me to come here?"

"Well, in part, at least; but I can say in my own defense, Miss
Catherwood, that I bore you no ill will. Perhaps, if the first phase of
the affair had never existed, I should have helped you anyhow to come to
Richmond had I known that you wished to do so."

"And how can I help you now?"

The Secretary shrugged his shoulders. He did not wish to say all that
was in his mind. Moreover, he sought to bring her will into subjection
to his. The personal sense that he was coming into contact with a mind
as strong as his own did not wholly please him, yet by a curious
contrariety this very feeling increased his admiration of her.

"I was willing that you should come to Richmond," he said, "for a reason
that I will not mention and which perhaps has passed away. I have had in
my mind--well, to put it plainly, a sort of bargain, a bargain in which
I did not consult you. I thought that you might help me with Helen
Harley, that--well, to speak plainly again, that your attractions might
remove from my path one whom I considered a rival."

A deep flush overspread her face, and then, retreating, left it paler
than ever. Her fingers were pressed tightly into the palms of her hands,
but she said nothing.

"I am frank," continued the Secretary, "but it is best between us.
Finesse would be wasted upon one with your penetrating mind, and I pay
you the highest compliment I know when I discard any attempt to use it.
I find that I have made a great mistake in more respects than one. The
man who I thought stood in my way thought so himself at one time, but he
knows better. Helen Harley is very beautiful and all that is good, but
still there is something lacking. I knew it long ago, but only in the
last few weeks has it had its effect upon me. This man I thought my
rival has turned aside into a new path, and I--well, it seems that fate
intends that he shall be my rival even in his changes--have followed
him."

"What do you mean?" she asked, a sudden fire leaping to her eyes and a
cold dread clutching her heart.

"I mean," he said, "that however beautiful Helen Harley may be, there
are others as beautiful and one perhaps who has something that she
lacks. What is that something? The power to feel passion, to