aw what I
saw when I came in," said she. "I have only to inform you that--any
doubts which you may have entertained, any fears, are altogether
groundless. Everything has been as harmless as--the candy you ate
last night."

Horace started and stared at her. In truth, he had lain awake until a
late hour wondering what might be going to happen to him.

"I made it," said Mrs. Ayres. "I attend to everything. I have
attended to everything." She gazed at him with a strange, pathetic
dignity. "I have no apologies nor excuses to make to you," she said.
"I have only this to say, and you can reflect upon it at your
leisure. Sometimes, quite often, it may happen that too heavy a
burden, a burden which has been gathering weight since the first of
creation, is heaped upon too slender shoulders. This burden may bend
innocence into guilt and modesty into shamelessness, but there is no
more reason for condemnation than in a case of typhoid fever. Any man
of good sense and common Christianity should take that view of it."

"I do," cried Horace, hurriedly. He looked longingly at the door. He
had never felt so shamed in his life, and never so angrily
sympathetic.

"I will go over to Mrs. Steele's and telephone immediately," said
Mrs. Ayres, calmly. "Good-morning, Mr. Allen."

"Good-morning," said Horace. There was something terrible about the
face of patient defiance which the woman lifted to his.

"You will not--" she began.

Horace caught her thin hand and pressed it heartily. "Good God, Mrs.
Ayres!" he stammered.

She nodded. "Yes, I understand. I can trust you," she said. "I am
very glad it happened with you."

Horace was relieved to be out in the open air. He felt as if he had
escaped from an atmosphere of some terrible emotional miasma. He
reflected that he had heard of such cases as poor Lucy Ayres, but he
had been rather incredulous. He walked along wondering whether it was
a psychological or physical phenomenon. Pity began to get the better
of his shame for himself and the girl. The mother's tragic face came
before his eyes. "What that woman must have to put up with!" he
thought.

When he had commenced the morning session of school he found himself
covertly regarding the young girls. He wondered if such cases were
common. If they were, he thought to himself that the man who threw
the first stone was the first criminal of the world. He realized the
helplessness of the young things before forces of nature of which
the