She stood before me for just a moment undecided. The twilight was

coming and the room was dim.

"Auntie will miss me," said she, "after a time."

"I have missed you all the time," was my reply.

"But you sent for me?"

"Of course I did. Doesn't this look as though I had?"

"I don't quite understand----"

"Shall I call Jimmy to explain? He called you a heartless jade----"

"The little imp! How dare he!"

"--As in fact all of our brotherhood has come to call you: 'The

heartless jade.'"

"I made fudges for him! And the little wretch told me I wasn't playing

the game! What did he mean? Oh, Harry, I wouldn't have come if I

hadn't wanted to play the game fairly. I'm sorry for what I said." She

spoke now suddenly, impulsively.

"What was it you said?"

"When I said--when I called you--a coward. I didn't mean it."

"You said it."

"But not the way you thought. I only meant, you took an unfair

advantage of a girl, running off with her, this way, and giving her no

chance to--to get away. But now you do give me a chance--you meant to,

all along--and in every way, as I've just done telling auntie, you've

been perfectly fine, perfectly splendid, perfectly bully, too! It has

been a hard place for a man, too, but--Harry, dear boy, I'll have to

say it, you've been some considerable gentleman through it all! There

now!" And she stood, aloof, agitated, very likely flushed, though I

could not tell in the dark.

"Thank you, Helena," I said.

"And as to your being any other sort of a coward--that you had

physical fear--that you wouldn't do a man's part--why, I never did

mean that at all. How could I? And if I had--why, even Auntie Lucinda

said your going out after that Chinaman the other night was

heroic--even if he couldn't have cooked a bit!--and you know Auntie

Lucinda has always been against you."

"Yes, and you both called me a coward, because I quit my law office

and ran away from misfortune."

"Yes, we did. And I meant that, too! I say it now to your face, Harry.

But maybe I don't know all about that----"

"Maybe not."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be unjust, of course, but I don't think a

man ought to throw away his life. You're young. You could start over

again, and you ought to have tried. Your father made his own money,

and so did my father--why, look at the Sally M. mine, that has given

me my own fortune. Do you suppose that grew on a bush to be shaken

off? So why couldn't you go out in the same way and do something in

the world--I don't mean just make money, you know, but do something?

That's what a girl likes. And you were able enough. You are young and

strong, and you have your education; and I've heard my father say,

before he died--and other men agreed with him--that you were the best

lawyer at our bar, and that you had an extraordinary mind, and a clear

sense of justice, and, and----"




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