Nor do I credit any mischievous gossip which ventures to link my brother's name with the name of Mrs.Ruthven." He paid no heed to what she hinted, and he was still thinking of Ruthven when he said: "The most contemptible and cowardly thing a man can do is to fail a person dependent on him--when that person is in prospective danger.

The dependence, the threatened helplessness _must_ appeal to any man! How can he, then, fail to stand by a person in trouble--a person linked to him by every tie, every obligation.

Why--why to fail at such a time is dastardly--and to--to make a possible threatened infirmity a reason for abandoning a woman is monstrous--!" "Phil! I never for a moment supposed that even if you suspected Alixe to be not perfectly responsible you would have abandoned her--" "_I ?_ Abandon _her!_" He laughed bitterly.

"I was not speaking of myself," he said.

.