"It is impossible, and it will always be," she said. "Will you not see what I am, and how very different that is from what you think of me?"

Alton smiled gravely. "My dear, I want you as you are. How could it make a difference whether you had done right or wrong--and I shall still hold you blameless when I know everything."

Passion was once more kindling in his eyes, and Alice Deringham, who saw it, rose stiffly upright, holding on to her last strength. Her face was very weary, but there was something in her eyes which restrained the man.

"I can bear no more," she said, with a downward glance at the long black dress. "Have you forgotten? You have shown me what a man can rise to, Harry Alton, but I will not wrong you further by marrying you.

Now you must say nothing, but out of pity for me go away."

The appeal was effective, for Alton bent his head. "I am going--but there is nothing impossible, and I will come back," he said, and moved slowly towards the stairway.

Alice Deringham watched him cross the garden, and then the last vestige of the resolution that had sustained her melted, and she went very wearily into the house, where, as it happened, Mrs. Forel was waiting for her. The elder lady asked no questions, for she saw her face, but drew the girl very gently down beside her.

"I am sorry, my dear," she said.

Alice Deringham let her head sink down upon her companion's shoulder and sobbed aloud.

"There can be very few men like Harry Alton," she said disjointedly.

"And because I could not abuse his goodness I sent him away."

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE CONSUMMATION

It was hot outside in the noisy streets, but the Somasco Consolidated offices were quiet and cool when Alton entertained two of his friends there one afternoon. There is no special sanctity attached to a place of business in the West, and nobody who knew Alton would have been astonished to find plates of fruit upon the papers which littered his table, and a spirit lamp burning on the big empty stove. A very winsome young lady also sat in a lounge-chair, and Forel close by glanced at her with a most unbusinesslike twinkle in his eyes.

Seaforth had been married recently, and his wife had called in to see, so she told Alton, that he was not working him too hard.

"You will give Mrs. Charley some tea," said Alton. "Your husband, madam, has been brought up well, but there was a time when I had real trouble in teaching him. Forel, you'll find some ice and soda yonder as well as the other things."

Nellie Seaforth laughed a little as she thrust the cup away. "No," she said; "I know where that tea comes from, and I would sooner have some ice and soda with out the other things. Have the strawberries gone up, Harry?"

Alton nodded. "That's a fact, and I am very glad," he said. "You see, we are sending out about a ton of them every day, and there are none to equal ours in the Dominion. Still, if Charley wasn't so lazy he'd give you some. Can't you find that ice, Forel? There was a big lump yesterday."

"That is quite possible," said Forel dryly, "but it has gone, and it is apparently running out of your plans and estimates now."

"Then you will have to fall back upon Horton's tea," said Alton, smiling. "Nobody knows where he gets it from except that it isn't China, but he seems to think it's my duty to buy it from him, and the rasp of it brings the bush back to me. Makes one smell the cedars, and see the lake flashing, and I'm very tired of the city."

Mrs. Seaforth laughed as she glanced at the bottles Forel was pitching out of a box, for as yet he had not found one with anything in it.

"Have you a mineral water factory at Somasco, too?" she said.

"Not yet," said Alton gravely. "But we may have by and by, though some of my partners would have more use for a distillery. We're going to have everything that will pay, but we've been too busy making roads lately."

Forel stood up, looking a little more thoughtful. "You are, at any rate, running up a confoundedly long bill," he said. "You will get very few new dresses, Mrs. Seaforth, unless you make your husband stop him. Of course you heard nothing, Alton, from the roads and trails?"

Alton laughed softly. "That's where you're wrong. I wrote them wanting to know if they thought it my duty to open up the country for them, and I got a letter that the affair is receiving consideration.

If the bush country members can get the new appropriation through, the surveyor's going up to look at what we've done."

"Effrontery is the thing that pays," said Forel. "But have you heard from Tom?"

Alton's face grew a trifle graver. "He and more of the boys are sitting on the claim, and there's another crowd camped down with stakes ready right in front of him. He tells me he finds it hard to keep his hands off them, and I'd have gone up only that I'm waiting for the Crown folks' decision."

"I think they can only declare the claim open," said Forel, "and that being so they couldn't well send you an intimation before they made the fact public."

Nobody said anything for a little. Forel had told them nothing new, and they could guess at the suspense Alton had been enduring, for the decision of the Crown authorities meant a good deal to all of them. If the claim were declared open, the first man to restake it and get in his papers could take possession.

"It would be dreadful if Harry lost it," said Mrs. Seaforth. "Still, I don't think he will."

Alton laughed a little. "I don't mean to if I can help it," he said.

"I've had Thomson prospecting for the fastest road down, and he has found one that is rideable."

Forel nodded. "That reminds," he said. "Hettie wants to get away from the city, and I thought of taking her and Miss Deringham up to Somasco.

You will lend us the house for a week or two?"

"Of course," said Alton. "Go as soon as it's possible. I want a man with a business grip up there. My head will scarcely hold all the things I've been trying to cram into it lately."

Mrs. Seaforth glanced at him with a little smile of sympathy, for although the Somasco affairs looked a little more promising now, Alton had been doing the work of several men, and the strain had told on him.

She also remembered her husband's sleepless nights.

"We shall all be glad when the anxiety is over, but one can't help thinking that you men have the best of it now and then," she said. "At least you can work--while we can only sit still."

Forel smiled upon her. "Well," he said, without reflection, "there is one woman who has done a good deal for Somasco."

He saw his blunder next moment, for Alton rose up suddenly. "I would like to hear that again," he said.

Forel was manifestly uncomfortable, but he glanced towards Mrs.

Seaforth as he said, "I think Charley will back me up."

"Of course," said Seaforth, whose tone, however, chiefly expressed bewilderment; but Alton made a little forceful gesture.

"Pshaw!" he said. "You're fooling, Forel, and you would never disclose who your client was that lent us the money."

"No," said Forel resolutely. "Nor do I mean to. Sit down again, Harry, and don't get fancying things."

Alton moved a pace forward with a dark flush in his face. "Forel," he said, "where did all those dollars come from?"

Forel looked almost abject, and in his desperation glanced towards Nellie Seaforth.

"I think you had better tell him now," she said.

"You know, too?" said Forel.

Nellie Seaforth smiled a little. "I think I knew all along," she said.

"Still, Charley didn't. He is, of course, a man."

"Then one of you has got to tell me," said Alton.