as as if his
eyes for the first time had seen the real woman stripped of the glamour
lent by her beauty. His contemptuous withdrawal from the field had cut
like a knife thrust. She wanted to pay him with usury for his cool, hard
disdain. And she had the chance. All she had to do was to be silent and
he would fall a victim to his own folly.

There was a hard glitter in the eyes of the young woman. Perhaps Mr.
Highgrader Kilmeny, as Verinder had called him, would not be so prodigal
of contempt for other people when he stood in the criminal dock. He had
been brutally unkind to her. Was she to blame because he was too poor to
support her properly? He ought to thank her for having the good sense
not to tie herself like a millstone about his neck. They could not live
on love just because for the moment passion had swept them from their
feet. Instead of being angry at her, he should sympathize with her for
being the victim of a pressure which had driven her to a disagreeable
duty.

Her simmering anger received a fillip from an accidental meeting with
Kilmeny, the first since the night of her engagement. Joyce and Moya
were coming out of a stationer's when they came face to face with the
miner.

The eyes of the young man visibly hardened. He shook hands with them
both and exchanged the usual inane greetings as to the weather. It was
just as they were parting that he sent his barbed shot into Joyce.

"I mustn't keep you longer, Miss Seldon. One can guess how keen you
must be to get back to Verinder. Love's young dream, and that sort of
thing, eh?"

The jeer that ran through his masked insolence brought the angry color
to the cheeks of Joyce. She bit her lip to keep back tears of vexation,
but it was not until she was in her room with Moya that the need for a
confidant overflowed into speech.

"Did you ever hear anything so hateful? He made love to me on the
hill.... I let him.... He knows I ... am fond of him. I told him that I
loved him. And now...."

Moya stared at her in amaze. "Do you mean that you let Mr. Kilmeny make
love to you an hour or two before you became engaged to Mr. Verinder?"

"For Heaven's sake, don't be a prude, Moya," Joyce snapped irritably. "I
told you I was fond of him, didn't I? How could I help his kissing
me ... or help liking to have him? He ought to be glad. Instead, he
insults me." Miss Seldon's self-pity reached the acute stage of sobs.
"I was in love with him. Why is he so hard?"

"Perh