"I want to help you to see what a mistake you have made," Nan continued gently. "You had grown used to Guy, his devotion was such an old story that you thought you did not love him. Miss Stuart's great beauty fascinated you, and she soon found it easy to bend you to her will. Forgive me, darling, but this once I must speak bluntly. Many and many a time you would have gone back to your allegiance to Guy had she not willed it otherwise, and had he, poor fellow, not taken the worst course for his cause. It was foolish for him to go away, but Guy never could bear half-measures. Since then you have almost learned to know Lillian Stuart for yourself. Yet, even to this day, you blind yourself about her. I sometimes am tempted to think it is simply because she is so beautiful." Helen started up, her face ablaze. "Nan, Nan, you are unjust. You despise me because I gave Guy up, but I tell you I realized I did not love him before I ever saw Lillian Stuart. I do love her." "Pshaw," interrupted Nan indignantly. "Guy Appleton is the best and truest man in the world, and you must have loved him if you had not been unduly influenced. There, dear, don't be angry. You know how fond I am of Guy, and how keenly I took his disappointment to heart. He loved you so, Helen, and he was so miserable." "Please spare me, Nan," murmured Helen brokenly. "I can't spare you, dear. If your mistakes had simply made you suffer, I would never have said a word, but it is not so. Miss Stuart has crossed Jean's path, and for her sake I have spoken." "If it is true, if I were sure of it, I would want to die." "Dying would not do any good. Live, and some day it may be in your power to put an end to all this sorrow." "Nan, are you sure that Mr. Farr is in love with Jean?" "Not sure, Helen, but I think so." "What can I do?" "Nothing at present. We must wait, and see what happens. Oh! I am very hopeful for the future." When they were in bed and the lights were out, Nan ventured to ask: "Don't you think Guy will ever return to Hetherford?" "I don't know, dear," Helen replied, with a sound of tears in her voice. Nan longed to shake her, to say "You ought to know; it depends solely upon you; why don't you do something about it?" but she felt she had gone far enough for one night, and turning over on her pillow, fell fast asleep. Nan was only a country-bred lass, and yet not all her separation from the world and from her fellow-creatures could shut her out from an unerring comprehension of human nature. Her wide sympathies taught her to understand Helen's coldness toward a lover whose one fault was that he had demanded too little and yielded too much; and she was too thorough an artist not to fully appreciate the wonderful spell that beauty such as Miss Stuart's casts upon certain natures.