"
I arose, and she followed my example.
"Now, then," said she, "we are friends," and her sparkling eyes seemed
to have communicated their merriment to the gems upon the white hand
which she held out to me.
I took the hand, and as I did so a politic idea flashed up within me. If
I must be friends with this woman, why not make use of her? This was a
moment when she was well disposed to serve me.
"If you are willing to consider me a friend," I replied, still holding
her hand, "you will not refuse to tell me something which I have long
wanted to know, and which I ought to know."
"What is it?" she asked.
"What was the trouble, which caused Sylvia Raynor to enter the House of
Martha?"
She withdrew her hand and reflected for a moment.
"Man is an inquisitive animal," she answered, "but we cannot alter his
nature, and there is some excuse for your wanting to know all about
Sylvia. She is out of your reach, of course, but you have certainly
taken as much interest in her as a man can take in a woman. The matter
is not a close secret, and I suppose I may as well tell you that the
cause of her entering the sisterhood was nothing at all out of the
common. It was simply a thwarted love affair. You don't like that, I can
see by your face.
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