much to scold you for being in the way, as from a hungry, despairing
hope that you might speak some word of encouragement. I was not
disappointed, and I have felt stronger ever since."

"I should never have suspected any such purpose. We have never so much
as exchanged speech since, until to-day, and then I forced it."

She shook her head, a vagrant tress of her black hair loosening.

"You must be a very young and inexperienced man to expect to comprehend
all that any woman feels merely by what she says or does."

"No," smilingly, "I have advanced beyond that stage of development,
although the mystery of some womanly natures may always remain beyond
me. But can I ask you a somewhat personal question, also?"

"Most assuredly, yet I expressly reserve the privilege of refusing a
direct reply."

"Is Beth Norvell your real, or merely your stage name?"

"Why do you ask? That is a secret which, I believe, an actress is
privileged to keep inviolate."

"For one particular reason--because I cannot escape a vague impression
that somewhere we have met before."

She did not respond immediately, her gloved fingers perceptibly
tightening about the prayer-book, her eyes carefully avoiding his own.