"Say," said she, admitting Barbara nearer to good-fellowship than she had ever done before, "I reckon you have heered the news--Ike's drunk--dead drunk!" Barbara regarded her excitement with a careful calm. She, herself, had been excited by the news when it had reached her, but a moment since, but she would not let this girl know that. Her role was to endeavor to force the mountain girl back into what she thought her place, at any cost. "Yes, I've heard," said she, "and it's too late to get another jockey, so Queen Bess can't run." She had formed a plan, deep in her mind, and had sought the mountain-girl with the skilful scheme. "Then Mr. Frank is goin' to be ruined!" Madge exclaimed, dejectedly. "Not unless you wish it," Barbara replied, looking straight into her eyes. "Dellaw! Me wish that? Just you tell me what you mean!" The bluegrass girl stood looking at the mountain maiden with appraising eye for a few seconds. Then she crossed the room and stood close by her side, while she tapped upon the table nervously with her carefully gloved fingers. "If this sale fails, as it seems it must," she said, slowly, "it rests with you whether my father will advance the money to pay the assessment on that stock of Mr. Layson's." "Your father give him the money?" Madge said in astonishment. "Well, I'd never thought o' that! But what have I got to do about it?" The situation was a hard one, even for the self-possession of the lowlands girl, who had inherited her father's coolness in emergency as well as some other traits less desirable. Her color rose and she tried, earnestly, to gather words which would express the thought she had in mind without including a confession of the weakness of her own position. This she could not, do, however. She walked over to the window, gazed from it, for a moment, at the passing crowds, and then returned to Madge, to tell her bluntly: "I want you to go away from here." "Me go away? What for?" It was impossible, Barbara now discovered, to make her meaning wholly clear, without some measure of humiliation. The first thing that was, obviously, necessary was a statement of facts as they were, and this must include confession of her own sore weakness. She hesitated, trying to avoid it, but when she quite decided that it could not be helped, plunged on with a perfect frankness. What she wished was immediately to gain her point. If she must eat a bit of humble pie in order to accomplish this, why, she would eat it, much as she disliked the diet. "Can't you see that it is you who stand between Frank and me?" she cried. "If it hadn't been for you, I should have been his promised wife! If you will go away and never see him again, I can win him back."