She looked me fully in the eyes as she said: "You have been wonderfully patient and very circumspect. I am sure in his heart Mr. Winthrop respects you even if he is at times a trifle cavalier in his behavior." Her eyes were still upon me with the innocent, childlike expression on her face I was beginning to understand and fear. I said very calmly: "He can be exceedingly fascinating when he chooses, and if he really cared for one, I cannot imagine anything he would hesitate to do for them, provided it was honorable. I could not conceive him stooping to a mean or unworthy action." "Mr. Winthrop will be flattered when I repeat your words." "Then you know him?" "You will think so when you hear my story." CHAPTER XXI. MRS. LE GRANDE'S STORY. "Did you ever hear that Mr. Winthrop was within one day of being married?" My surprise at first rendered me speechless; but at last I murmured, "No." "Then you have never heard the tragedy of his life. You have heard that for some reason he was embittered against our sex." "A mere hint." "So I should judge, or the rest would also have been told. Your acquaintance have been remarkably guarded. Well, I will tell you all about it." "I do not wish you to tell me. I think Mr. Winthrop desires I should never know the particulars of that circumstance, else Mrs. Flaxman would have told me." "You are very sensitive about your guardian. Women cannot afford such fine sense of honor. Men do not treat us in that way. If they find we have a skeleton concealed somewhere, they will not rest until it is brought out into the glaring light, for every evil eye to gloat on." "Not every man. Many of them would help us to conceal what gave us pain. I believe Mr. Winthrop is one of them. Then should I listen to what he wishes buried in oblivion?" "It may be for his happiness that you should, dear; and my story and his are, for awhile, the same." I had risen to put on my hat and cloak to get away from the temptation she pressed upon me; but at her last words I sank back into the chair. "Can you be the woman he loved and was to marry?" "Would it surprise you very much if I said Yes?" "It would, and it would not." "Your words are ambiguous. I was told you were exceedingly frank and impulsive, but one cannot always believe the public verdict." I was silent. I recognized I had a clever woman to deal with, and for some reason she wished to use me for her own purpose, I was assured. She arose, and crossing the room disappeared through the tapestry portiere. I watched her as she moved gracefully away, her long silken robe seeming to give additional height to her already tall figure. She presently returned, bringing a richly bound album, and laid it, open, on my knee. I glanced at it, and saw my guardian's pictured face looking at me, brighter, happier than it had ever done in reality. "Does he look like that now?" I studied the picture before I answered.