arked chin."

"Here," said he, approaching the binnacle lantern, and holding out a
miniature he had drawn from his breast,--"here you can recognize the
accuracy of your description."

"But can that be like her?"

"It is herself; even the careless ease of the attitude, the voluptuous
indolence of the 'pose,' is all her own."

"But she is the very type of feminine softness and delicacy. I never saw
eyes more full of gentle meaning, nor a mouth more expressive of womanly
grace."

"There is no flattery in the portrait; nay, it wants the great charm
she excelled in,--that ever changeful look as thoughts of joy or sadness
would flash across her."

"Good Heavens!" cried Stocmar. "How hard it is to connect this
creature, as she looks here, with such a story!"

"Ah, my friend, these have been the cruel ones, from the earliest time
we bear of. The more intensely they are womanly, the more unrelenting
their nature."

"And what do you mean to do, Ludlow? for I own to you I think she is a
hard adversary to cope with."

"I marry her, if she 'll have me."

"Have you? Of course she will."

"She says not; and she generally keeps her word."

"But why should you wish to marry her, Ludlow? You have already told me
that you know nothing of her means, or how she lives; and, certainly,
the memories of the past give small guarantee for the future. As for
myself, I own to you, if there was not another woman--"

"Nay, nay," broke in Paten, "you have never seen her,--never spoken to
her."

"You forget, my dear fellow, that I have passed a life in an atmosphere
of mock fascinations; that tinsel attractions and counterfeit graces
would all fail with me."

"But who says they are factitious?" cried Paten, angrily. "The money
that passes from hand to hand, as current coin, may have some alloy
in its composition a chemist might call base, but it will not serve to
stamp it as fraudulent. I tell you, Stocmar, it is the whole fortune of
a man's life to be associated with such a woman. They can mar or make
you."

"More likely the first," muttered Stocmar. And then added aloud, "And as
to her fortune, you actually know nothing."

"Nothing beyond the fact that there's money somewhere. The girl or she,
I can't say which, has it."

"And of course, in your eyes, it 's like a pool at ecarte: you don't
trouble your head who are the contributors?"

"Not very much if I win, Stocmar!" said he, resuming at once all the
wonted ease of his jo