e in contact with hers,
so hot and tremulous; it touched and lingered, lingered long, and
clung in a tender pressure; while a voice so low and firm, a voice,
oh! so faint and sweet, stole its way into her ear, murmuring but one
word, one little, fond word, which moved her in the strangest way,
which thrilled, yet soothed her. Cooler than snow it fell upon her
burning cheeks, warmer than a sunbeam into her freezing heart. That
little game with Rube passed out of her memory.

But looking up all too soon, she saw him. He smiled upon her. He was
glad to see that she and Devonhough were getting along quite
pleasantly.

"I wish you would go away!" she suddenly exclaimed, turning upon her
companion rudely. "Go back to Clara Rutland! You have no business
here! I do not believe a word you have said to me! I yet fail to
comprehend why a man may not be the master of his own actions."

"Heigh-ho!" sighed Jerome. "Just so it is in life. Just as a man
begins to think he has put everything in order, and settled the
question, here comes chaos again. You do not understand that,
Mell? Well, I will tell you. Every man has a master--circumstance. On
my side, I am surprised that you, with all your quickness of
apprehension, have not been able to see clearer and deeper into this
subject. You ought to have known, you must have felt that I had
some good reason for acting towards you as I have to-day. Have you
been true to your promise to trust me--and trust me blindly? I fear
not. You have been cruelly angry with me ever since this morning,
when I dared not speak."

"And why was it that you dared not speak?" demanded Mell, her lip
curling contemptuously, but with a tremolo movement in her voice.
"Does it then require some courage for a man, in your position to
speak to a poor girl like me? Rube does not think so."

"With Rube it is different."

"_It is_, very different. There is no false pride about Rube."

"And I hope there is none about me. But, Mell, you do not in the least
understand my position."

"I know as much about it as I care to know. Henceforth, Mr.
Devonhough, let us be strangers."

"We can never be strangers," said Jerome. He was growing earnest; he
spoke very low and with that rapidity of utterance which accompanies
excited feelings. "This no time nor place, Mell, for such an
explanation; but here, and now, I will make it. I cannot longer exist
under the ban of your displeasure. Know then, dear, that I would not
spe