"Yours?"

Christine was not over-intelligent, perhaps, but she was shrewd. That Le

Moyne's past held a secret she had felt from the beginning. She sat up

with eager curiosity.

"No, not mine. Is it a promise?"

"Of course."

"I've found Tillie, Christine. I want you to go out to see her."

Christine's red lips parted. The Street did not go out to see women in

Tillie's situation.

"But, K.!" she protested.

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"She needs another woman just now. She's going to have a child, Christine;

and she has had no one to talk to but her hus--but Mr. Schwitter and

myself. She is depressed and not very well."

"But what shall I say to her? I'd really rather not go, K. Not," she

hastened to set herself right in his eyes--"not that I feel any

unwillingness to see her. I know you understand that. But--what in the

world shall I say to her?"

"Say what your own kind heart prompts."

It had been rather a long time since Christine had been accused of having a

kind heart. Not that she was unkind, but in all her self-centered young

life there had been little call on her sympathies. Her eyes clouded.

"I wish I were as good as you think I am."

There was a little silence between them. Then Le Moyne spoke briskly:-"I'll tell you how to get there; perhaps I would better write it."

He moved over to Christine's small writing-table and, seating himself,

proceeded to write out the directions for reaching Hillfoot.

Behind him, Christine had taken his place on the hearth-rug and stood

watching his head in the light of the desk-lamp. "What a strong, quiet

face it is," she thought. Why did she get the impression of such a

tremendous reserve power in this man who was a clerk, and a clerk only?

Behind him she made a quick, unconscious gesture of appeal, both hands out

for an instant. She dropped them guiltily as K. rose with the paper in his

hand.

"I've drawn a sort of map of the roads," he began. "You see, this--"

Christine was looking, not at the paper, but up at him.

"I wonder if you know, K.," she said, "what a lucky woman the woman will be

who marries you?"

He laughed good-humoredly.

"I wonder how long I could hypnotize her into thinking that."

He was still holding out the paper.

"I've had time to do a little thinking lately," she said, without

bitterness. "Palmer is away so much now. I've been looking back,

wondering if I ever thought that about him. I don't believe I ever did. I

wonder--"




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