you! All for effect!"




CHAPTER II


A laugh, clear and cold as a sleigh-bell on a frosty night rang out
on the silence.

"Why did you run away from me?"

He replied at once, and brusquely.

"Because I was tired of you!"

She laughed again. A strange white elf as she looked In the
spreading moonbeams she was woman to the core, and the disdainful
movement of her small uplifted head plainly expressed her utter
indifference to his answer.

"I followed you"--she said--"I knew I should find you! What are you
doing up here? Shamming to be ill?"

"Precisely! 'Sham' is as much in my line as yours. I have to
'pretend' in order to be real!"

"Paradoxical as usual!" and she shrugged her shoulders--"Anyway
you've chosen a good place to do your shamming in. It's quite lovely