- son outside who might seek to look in. As he
turned in from the street, he had fancied he caught the sound of voices drifting out through that window, and one was, he believed, that of Janet.
Presently the maid came, and he asked for Miss Harting. "I haven't a card," he said. "Please tell her it is Mr. Locke, who would like to see her a few minutes."
He was left standing in the hall, which was lighted by the soft glow of a shaded lamp. In a brief time the maid returned.
"Miss Harting is engaged," she said, "and cannot see you."
It seemed that his heart stopped beating, and he stood quite still, unwilling to believe it could be true. The maid opened the door. He passed out with the step of a somnambulist.
So, after all, she was that sort of a girl! Only the thoughtless and shallow render judgment without a proper hearing and an investigation. He had thought her something more than a girl easily swayed and swept away by every light, shifting wind; but it now seemed that he had invested her with imaginary qualities and a character which she did not possess.
The door closed behind him. His feet threatened to drag as he walked toward the gate. Sud-
