"It was contemptible," she said hotly. "It was treachery! It
was a piece of cold-blooded ambition. He'd sacrifice anything,
any one, to ambition. I shall never like him again."

Pierson was puzzled--being in love with her, he had been deceived
by her pretense that she had a poor opinion of him; and he did
not appreciate that her sense of justice was now clouded by
resentment for his sake. At dinner, when the four were together,
she attacked Scarborough. Though she did not confess it, he
forced her to see that at least his motives were not those she
had been attributing to him. When he and Pauline were
alone--Olivia and Pierson had to hurry away to a lecture he said:
"What do YOU think, Miss Gardiner? You--did you--do you--agree
with your cousin?

"I?" Pauline dropped her eyes. "Oh, I----"

She hesitated so long that he said: "Go on--tell me just what
you think. I'd rather know than suspect."

"I think you did right. But--I don't see how you had the
courage to do it."

"That is, you think I did right--but the sort of right that's
worse than wrong."

"No--no!" she protested, putting a good deal of feeling into
her voice in the effort to reassure him. "I'd have been ashamed
of you if you hadn't done it. And--oh, I despise weakness in a