"What!" she cried, her face crimson. "Do you think I'd take money from
Miriam Standish? Why----"

She stopped short in confusion, and covered her poor face with
trembling hands.

"I beg your pardon," said Ajax gravely, "I wouldn't hurt your
feelings, Gloriana, for the world."

She looked up, irresolutely.

"I reckon I've said too much or too little," she said slowly. "Ye're
both gen'lemen, an' ye've bin awful kind ter me. I kin trust ye with
my secret, an' I'm goin' ter do it. The Standishes, are New England
folk--high-toned an' mighty particler. It's as easy fer them ter be
virtuous as ter eat punkin pie fer breakfast. I come from Wisconsin,
where we think more of our bodies than our souls; an' 'twas in
Wisconsin that I first met Dr. Standish. He had a call to the town,
wher I lived with--with my sister. She, my sister, was a real pretty
girl then, but of a prettiness that soon fades. An' she hired out as
cook ter the Doctor. He was a good man, an' a kind one, but she paid
back his kindness by runnin' off with his only son."

"Surely," said Ajax gently, "the son was also to blame?"

"No, sir, my sister was ter blame, an' she knew it. We was common
folk, Mr. Ajax, what they would call in the South--white trash, an'
the Standishes was real quality. My sister knew that, an' refused to
marry the young man, tho' he asked her on his bended knees. Then he