rday,
Madge must have revealed more of it to that dying girl than to any
one else. How my heart thrilled at those strange whispered words! How
dearly I would love to help her and bring unalloyed happiness into her
life! But whatever it was referred to I cannot touch upon till she
of her own accord gives me her confidence. Could she have formed what
promises to be a hopeless love in her Western home, and is she now
hiding a wound that will not heal, while bravely and cheerfully facing
life as it is? Perhaps her purpose to return to Santa Barbara proves
that she does not regard her love as utterly hopeless. Well, whatever
the truth may be, she hides her secret with consummate skill, and I
shall not pry into even her affairs. I only know that as I feel now I
should prize her friendship above any other woman's love."

"What are you thinking of so deeply?" she asked, meeting his eyes.

"My thought just then was that I should prize your friendship above
any other woman's love, and I had been felicitating myself that Stella
Wildmere would never have the right to criticise the fact."

"Oh, Graydon, what a man of moods and tenses you are!" Then she added,
laughing, "There has been indeed a kaleidoscopic turn in affairs. Mr.
Arnault disappeared yesterday, and Mary learned that the Wildmeres
left by the early train this morning."

"Yes, Miss Wildmere followed Arnault promptly. They are near of kin,
but not too near to marry. Their nuptials should be solemnized in Wall
Street, under flowers arranged into a dollar symbol."

"I feel sorry for Mr. and Mrs. Wildmere, though; especially the
former. I think he might have been quite different had the fates been
kinder."

"I would rather dismiss them all from my mind as far as possible.
Don't think me callous about Stella. If she had decided for me at once
and been true I would have been loyal to her in spite of everything;
but the revelation of her cold, mercenary soul makes me shudder when I
think how narrowly I escaped allying myself to it."

"You have indeed had an escape," Madge replied, gravely. "If she were
a young, thoughtless, undeveloped girl her womanhood might have come
to her afterward. I hope I am mistaken, but she has made a singular
impression on me."

"Please tell me it. You have insight into character that in one so
young is surprising."

"I have no special insight. I simply feel people. They create an
atmosphere and make some dominant impression with which I a