Fortunately he contents himself with putting his feelings into a burning
look, the ardor of which causes the cheeks of the young ma'mselle to
grow as red as fire, and she looking the other way at the time.

"I promised to tell you what success I had in my search," he begins,
knowing the confession to be inevitable.

Now she looks at him eagerly, expectantly.

"Yes, and I have tried to read the result in your face, but fear that it
has not been flattering."

So he tells her all, dealing lightly with the matter of Miss Pauline,
though she is such an important factor in the game that she cannot be
ignored.

Lady Ruth looks him directly in the eyes with her own steel blue orbs,
so honest, so strong, that John has always delighted to meet their gaze,
nor does he avoid it now.

"Perhaps I have no business to ask, Doctor Craig, but this Pauline
Potter--what is she to you, what was she to you that she goes to all
this trouble? Have you a secret of hers which she desires to gain?"

"I desire to retain your good opinion, Lady Ruth, and consequently am
anxious that you should know all. I shall not spare myself one iota."

So he explains how the fascinating actress caught his boyish fancy some
two years previous, and how devoted he had been to her until he learned