be kissed by him!  Try to fancy what new kind of fiendishness must lie in her heart!  I remember that she is to marry him because he pays her millions, and the word prostitution keeps haunting my memory; when I try to define it, I find that the millions do not alter it in the least.  That is a very cruel thought,—­a thought that drives away everything but the prayer—­and I sit and wonder what fearful punishment the hand of Fate will deal out for such a thing as that, what hatefulness it will stamp upon her for a sign to men.  And then because the perfect face still haunts my memory, I have a very Christ-like feeling indeed,—­that I could truly die to save that girl from such a horror.”

There was another long silence, and then suddenly, Mr. Howard rose from his seat.  “William,” he said in a different voice, “it is all useless, so why should we talk so?  The girl has to live her own life and learn these things for herself.  And in the meantime, perhaps I am letting myself be too much moved by her beauty, for there are many people in the world who are not beautiful, but who suffer things they do not deserve to suffer, and who really deserve our sympathy and help.”

“I fancy you’d not be much thanked for it in this case,” said the other, with a dry laugh.

Mr. Howard stood for some moments in silence, and then turned away to end the conversation.  “I fear,” he said, “that I have kept you more than I have any right to.  Let us go back to the house; it is not very polite to our hostess to stay so long.”

“It must be nearly time for my train, anyhow,” said the officer, and a moment later the two had passed out of the summer-house and up the path, Lieutenant Maynard carrying Mr. Howard’s violin-case in his hand.

The two did not see Helen as they passed her; the reason was that Helen was stretched out upon the ground by the side of the hedge.  It was not that she was hiding,—­she had no thought of that; it was because she had been struck there by the scathing words that she had heard.  Some of them were so bitter that they could only have filled her with rage had she not known that they were true, and had she not been awed by what she had learned of this man’s heart.  She could feel only terror and fiery shame, and the cruel words had beaten her down, first upon her knees, and then upon her face, and they lashed her like whips of flame and tore into her flesh and made her writhe.  She dared not cry out, or even sob; she could only dig into the ground with her quivering fingers, and lie there, shuddering in a fearful way.  Long after the two men were gone her cruel punishment still continued, for she still seemed to hear his words, seared into her memory with fire as they had been.  What Mr. Howard had said had come like a flash of lightning in the darkness to show her actions as they really were; the last fearful sentences which she had heard had set all her being aflame, and the thought of Mr. Harrison’s embraces filled her now with a perfect spasm of shame and loathing.