“Read the letter,” was his impatient reply, “or I shall go at once.”

She now turned to it resolutely, proposing to read it with an impassive face, but, in spite of herself, he saw that every word was like an electric touch upon her heart.  As she finished, the letter dropped from her hands, and she began crying so bitterly that he was disarmed, and forgot himself in her behalf.  “Don’t cry so, Millie,” he pleaded.  “I can’t stand it.  Come, now; I fought this battle out once before, and didn’t think I could be so accursedly weak again.”

“Roger, read that letter.”

“No,” he answered savagely; “I hate him—­I could annihilate him; but he shall never charge me with anything underhanded.  That letter was meant for your eyes only.  Since it must be, God grant he proves worthy; but his words would sting me like adders.”

She sprang to him, and, burying her face upon his shoulder, sobbed, “Oh, Roger, I can’t endure this.  It’s worse than anything I’ve suffered yet.”

“Oh, what a brute I am!” he groaned.  “His letter ought to have brought you happiness, but your kind heart is breaking over my trouble, for I’ve acted like a passionate boy.  Millie, dear Millie, I will be a brave, true man, and, as I promised you, your heart shall decide all.  From this time forth I am your brother, your protector, and I shall protect you against yourself as truly as against others.  You are not to blame in the least.  How could I blame you for a love that took possession of your heart before you knew of my existence, and why has not Millie Jocelyn. as good a right to follow her heart as any other girl in the land?  And you shall follow it.  It would be dastardly meanness in me to take advantage of your gratitude.  Come now, wipe your eyes, and give a sister’s kiss before I go.  It’s all right.”

She yielded passively, for she was weak, nerveless, and exhausted.  He picked up the open letter, replaced it within the envelope, and put it in her hand.  “It’s yours,” he said, “by the divine right of your love.  When I come this evening, don’t let me see a trace of grief.  I won’t mope and be lackadaisical, I promise,” and smilingly he kissed her good-by.

She sat for an hour almost without moving, and then mechanically put the letter away and went on with her work.  She felt herself unequal to any more emotion at that time, and after thinking the affair all over, determined to keep it to herself, for the present at least.  She knew well how bitterly her father, mother, and Belle would resent the letter, and how greatly it would disquiet them if they knew that her old love was not dead, and seemingly could not and would not die.  With the whole force of her resolute will she sought to gain an outward quietude, and succeeded so well that the family did not suspect anything.  She both longed for and dreaded Roger’s appearance, and when he came she looked at him so kindly, so remorsefully, that she tasked his strength to the utmost; but he held his own manfully, and she was compelled to admit that he had never appeared so gay or so brilliant before.  For an hour he and Belle kept them all laughing over their bright nonsense, and then suddenly he said, “Vacation’s over; I must begin work to-morrow,” and in a moment he was gone.