Part 22 (2/2)

I see that nothing ever can wipe that out I've got to go through life regretting it because you have taughtI did If it hadn't been for you I'd always have been proud of it--but you and Theriere taught s in a different way than I ever had learned to before I'lad, for if reladly and welco to me Only please don't look at me that way any more--it's more than I can stand, from you”

It was the first time that the man ever had opened his heart in any such whole-souled way to her, and it touched the girl more than she would have cared to adet that terrible affair,” she said; ”but somehow I feel that the man who did that was an entirely different man from the man who has been so brave and chivalrous in his treat the past feeeks”

”It was et away from that

It'll always stick in your memory, so that you can never think of Mr

Mallory without thinking of the daht it smart!

”But you have no idea hoas raised, Miss Harding,” he went on ”Not that that's any excuse for the thing I did; but it does make it see decent I never ell acquainted with any hu that wasn't a thief, or a pickpocket, or a murderer--and they were all beasts, each in his own particular way, only they weren't as decent as dumb beasts

”I wasn't as crafty as most of them, so I had to hold ad, how I accohed at the thought, ”was utterly unknown to me

If I'd ever have tried it I'd have seen , or in any other gang that I ever ran up against

It was an honor to kill ahi frolory of your exploit--it was WHAT you did, not HOW you did it, that counted

”I could have been decent, though, if I'd wanted to Other felloere born and raised near ood jobs and stuck to theht; but theyaround saloon corners rushi+ng the can and insulting women--I didn't want to be decent--not until I , and the red blood crept up his neck and across his face, ”and learned to want your respect”

It wasn't what he had intended saying and the girl knew it There sprang into her mind a sudden wish to hear Billy Byrne say the words that he had dared not say; but she promptly checked the desire, and a ust came over her because of the weakness that had prompted her to entertain such a wish in connection with a person of this man's station in life

Days ran into weeks, and still the two ree Byrne found first one excuse and then another to delay the march to the sea He knew that it must be made sooner or later, and he knew, too, that its co of the end of his association with Miss Harding, and that after that was ended life would be a dreary waste

Either they would be picked up by a passing vessel or murdered by the natives, but in the latter event his separation from the woman he loved would be no more certain or absolute than in her return to her own people, for Billy Byrne knew that he ”didn't belong” in any society that knew Miss Barbara Harding, and he feared that once they had regained civilization there would be a return on the girl's part to the old haughty aloofness, and that again he would be to her only a creature of a lower order, such as she and her kind addressed with a patronizing air as, ”my man”

He intended, of course, to make every possible atte to snatch a few golden hours of happiness in return for his service, and as partial recompense for the lifetime of lonely misery that must be his when the woht not, and so he tarried on upon ”Manhattan Island,” as Barbara had christened it, and he lived in the second finest residence in town upon the opposite side of ”Riverside Drive” fro

Nearly two months had passed before Billy's stock of excuses and delay ran out, and a definite date was set for the co had said, ”that you do not wish to be rescued at all Most of your reasons for postponing the trip have been trivial and ridiculous--possibly you are afraid of the dangers that ly

”I'rin

”I don't want to be rescued, and I am very much afraid of what lies before-- to lose you, any way you look at it, and--and--oh, can't you see that I love you?” he blurted out, despite all his good intentions

Barbara Harding looked at hi that could have hurt hihed

The color mounted to Billy Byrne's face, and then he went very white

The girl started to say so, and at the same instant there came faintly to the, and of shots

Byrne turned and started on a run in the direction of the firing, the girl following closely behind At the island's edge he motioned her to stop