ice bound fishermen--and she told herself that it would be impossible
ever to atone to him for her past rudeness.

"Perhaps I was unjust," she remarked presently, "but one is never proof
against intuitive impressions, and after all it does not greatly
matter."

Then she looked at Roger Adams as he walked in the electric light beside
her. She saw how haggard were the lines in his face, that he was bent in
the shoulders as if from some mental burden, and the delicacy of his
long, slender figure appeared to her almost as a physical infirmity. It
occurred to her at the instant that his bodily defects had never before
showed so plainly to her eyes, and it was with a flash of acute
self-consciousness--a flash as from a lantern that has been turned
inward--that she realised that she was comparing him with Arnold Kemper.




CHAPTER X

SHOWS THE HERO TO BE LACKING IN HEROIC QUALITIES


When he had parted from Laura Adams walked down Fifth Avenue to
Thirty-fifth Street and then turned east in the direction of his own
house. He found upon entering that Connie, as usual, was dining out, and
after he had eaten his poorly served dinner alone in the dining-room, he
went upstairs with the intention of slipping into his smoking jacket and
returning to his study for a peaceful smoke. The electric lights were