Stirred by troubled memories and perhaps encouraged by the sympathy he
showed, she had spoken on impulse without reserve, and Blake listened
with pity. The girl, brought up, subject to wholesome Puritanical
influences, in such surroundings as she had described, must have
suffered a cruel shock when suddenly plunged into the society of the
rakes and gamblers who frequented her father's flat.

"Could you not have gone back when you were no longer needed?" he asked.

"No," she said; "it would not have been fair. I had changed since I
left my aunts. They were very sensitive, and I think the difference
they must have noticed in me would have jarred on them. I should have
brought something alien into their unworldly life. It was too late to
return; I had to follow the path I had chosen."

Blake mused a while, watching the lights of Three Rivers fade astern
and the broad white wake of the paddles stream back across the glassy
surface of the lake. The girl must have learned much of human failings
since she left her sheltered home, but he thought the sweetness of
character which could not be spoiled by knowledge of evil was greatly
to be admired. He was, however, a man of action and not a philosopher.

"Well," he said, "I appreciate your letting me talk to you; but it's
cold and getting late, and you have sat on deck long enough. I'll see
that somebody looks after the animals."

Millicent felt dubious, though she was sleepy and tired.

"If anything happened to her pets, Mrs. Keith would not forgive me."