deceive himself any longer. Like other men, he had played
with fire and had been burnt. "But," he devoutly thought, "thank God,
I have started no conflagration."

CHAPTER XI

There had been five days in which to face a rather ugly and bald fact
before Northrup again saw Mary-Clare. He had employed the time, he
tried to make himself believe, wisely, sanely.

He had spent a good portion of it at the Point. He had irritated Larry
beyond endurance by friendly overtures. In an effort to be just, he
tried to include Rivers in his reconstruction. The truth, he sternly
believed, would never be known, but if it were, certainly Rivers might
have something to say for himself, and with humiliation Northrup
regarded himself "as other men." He had never, thank heaven! looked
upon himself as better than other men, but he had thought his
struggle, early in life, his unhappy parenthood, and later devotion to
his work, had set him apart from the general temptations of many young
men and had given him a distaste for follies that could hold no
suggestion of mystery for him.

Well, Fate had merely bided its time.

With every reason for escaping a pitfall, he had floundered in. "Like
other men?" Northrup sneered at himself. No other man could be such a
consummate fool, knowing what he knew.

Viewed from this position, Larry was not as contemptible as he had
once appeared.

But Rivers resented Northrup's advances, putting the lowest
interpretation upon them. In this he was upheld by Maclin, who was
growing restive under the tension that did not break, but stretched
endlessly on.

Northrup resolved to see Mary-Clare once more and then go home. He
would make sure that the fire he himself was scorched by had not
touched her. After that he would turn his back upon the golden selah
in his life and return to his niche in the wall.

This brought his mother and Kathryn into the line of vision. How
utterly he had betrayed their confidence! His whole life, from now on,
should be devoted to their service. Doubtless to other men, like
himself, there were women who were never forgotten, but that must not
blot out reality.

And then Northrup considered the task of unearthing Maclin's secrets,
and ridding the Forest of that subtle fear and distrust that the man
created. That was, however, too big an undertaking now. He must get
Twombley to watch and report. Northrup had a great respect for
Twombley's powers of observation.

And so th