tells me HERE" and she pressed one hand against her heart--"by the
way he spoke--that he loves her!"

"You seem to be a very observant young woman," said Gwent, smiling--
"One would think you were in love with him yourself!"

She raised her large dark eyes to his with perfect frankness.

"I am!" she said--"I see no shame in that! He is a fine man--it is
good to love him!"

Gwent was completely taken aback. Here was primitive passion with a
vengeance!--passion which admitted its own craving without
subterfuge. Manella's eyes were still uplifted in a kind of
childlike confidence.

"I am happy to love him!" she went on--"I wish only to serve him. He
does not love ME--oh, no!--he loves HER! But he hates her too--ah!"
and she gave a little shivering movement of her shoulders--"There is
no love without hate!--and when one loves and hates with the same
heart-beat, THAT is a love for life and death!" She checked herself
abruptly--then with a simplicity which was not without dignity
added--"I am saying too much, perhaps? But you are his friend--and I
think he must be very lonely up there!"

Mr. Senator Gwent was perplexed. He had not looked to stumble on a
romantic episode, yet here was one ready made to his hand. His
nature was ill attuned to romance of any kind, but he felt a certain
compassion for this girl, so richly dowered with physical beauty,
and smitten with love for a man like Roger Seaton who, according to