bitterly, "you care little--"
"My dear Ned," said Lee, "the fact that Mrs. Hale has a husband, and
knows that she can't marry me, puts us on equal terms. Nothing that she
could learn about me hereafter would make a flirtation with me any less
wrong than it would be now, or make her seem more a victim. Can you say
the same of yourself and that Puritan girl?"
"But you did not advise me to keep aloof from her; on the contrary,
you--"
"I thought you might make the best of the situation, and pay her some
attention, BECAUSE you could not go any further."
"You thought I was utterly heartless and selfish, like--"
"Ned!"
Falkner walked rapidly to the fireplace, and returned.
"Forgive me, George--I'm a fool--and an ungrateful one."
Lee did not reply at once, although he took and retained the hand
Falkner had impulsively extended. "Promise me," he said slowly, after a
pause, "that you will say nothing yet to either of these women. I ask it
for your own sake, and this girl's, not for mine. If, on the contrary,
you are tempted to do so from any Quixotic idea of honor, remember that
you will only precipitate something that will oblige you, from that same
sense of honor, to separate from the girl forever."
"I don't understand."
"Enough!" said he, with a quick return of his old reckless gayety.
"Shoot-Off-His-Mouth--the Beardless Boy Chief of the Sierras--has
spoken! Let the Pale Face with the black moustache ponder and beware how
he talks hereafter to the Rippling Cochituate Water! Go!"
Nevertheless, as soon as the door had closed upon Falkner, Lee's smile
vanished. With his colorless face turned to the fading light at the
window, the hollows in his temples and the lines in the corners of his
eyes seemed to have grown more profound. He remained motionless and
absorbed in thought so deep that the light rustle of a skirt, that would
at other times have thrilled his sensitive ear, passed unheeded. At
last, throwing off his reverie with the full and unrestrained sigh of
a man who believes himself alone, he was startled by the soft laugh of
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