said quietly; "and when I did, I knew that it would be to love.
Well, I've told you. Do what you can for me until you decide that
you're grown up. I'll wait."

And he turned and went away, and presently she heard a door shut and
echo, and slow footsteps in the street below.

Where was Martin?




VI


She wanted Martin. Everything that had happened that night made her
want Martin. He knew that she was a kid, and treated her as such. He
didn't stand up and try and force her forward into being a woman--
although, of all men, he had the right. He was big and generous and
had given her his name and house and the run of the world, but not
from his lips ever came the hard words that she had heard that
night. How extraordinary that they should have come from Alice as
well as from Gilbert.

She wanted Martin. Where was Martin? She felt more like a bird, at
that moment, than a butterfly--like a bird that had flown too far
from its nest and couldn't find its way back. She had been honest
with Martin, all along. Why, the night before they had started on
the street of adventure, she had told him her creed, in that dark,
quiet room with the moonlight on the floor in a little pool, and had