esence of
Gershom? Was there anything that could explain or excuse the presence of
Gershom?

The fire in his heart died down to cinders, while the light faded not
only from that hidden country of the endless roads, but from the green
hill and the blue sky and the little shining leaves of the branches
overhead.

In the distance, he could see the two figures moving onward toward the
gate of the Square; and beyond them there was only the long straight
street filled with gray dust and the empty shadows of human beings.

CHAPTER XVII

MRS. GREEN

As Patty went by so quickly, she saw Stephen without appearing to glance
in his direction. For the last few weeks a flame had run over her
whenever she remembered, and there was scarcely a moment when it was out
of her mind, that she had shown her heart so openly and that, as she
expressed it bitterly, "he had hidden behind his mother." "If he comes
back again," she told herself recklessly, and she felt scorched when she
thought that he might never come back, "I'll let him see that I can
trifle as well as, or better, than he can. I'll let him see that two can
play at that kind of game." A hundred times Corinna's warning returned
to her. The words, which had made so slight an impression when she heard
them, were burned now into her memory. Oh, Mrs. Page had known all along
what it meant! She had understood from the beginning; and she had tried,
without hurting her, to make her see the blind folly of such an
infatuation. As she thought of this to-day, Patty's heart ached with
injured pride and resentment, not only against Stephen, but against the
unfairness of life. Why was it that men and circumstances would never
let one be natural and generous? Was there a conspiracy of events, as
Mrs. Page had once said, to prevent the finest impulses from coming to
flower? "I'd have done anything on earth for him," thought the girl with
passionate indignation. "I'd have made any sacrifice. I could have been
anything that he wanted." And she felt bitterly that the best in her
soul, the sacred places of her life had been invaded and destroyed. The
blighted sensation which accompanies the recoil of an emotion seemed to
suspend not only the energy of her spirit, but the very breath in her
body. A change had passed over her heart and the world around her and
the persons and events which had so recently composed her universe. She
felt now that she cared for none of them, that, one and all