As she stood almost paralyzed by her emotions, he seized her hand in both his own, and before she could stop him he had kissed it fervently. Suddenly one word issued from the pale girl’s lips. “Traitor!” She hissed it out slowly, her tone tense and vibrating. The fellow drew back as if he had been stung. The next instant Alma Allyn opened the kitchen door and stepped calmly between them. CHAPTER VII. MARION RECEIVES A CALLER. “Thank you, Marion.” This was all that Miss Allyn said as she paused beside the two, her dearest friend and the man who was her lover. Her face was of a death-like pallor, and her eyes were gleaming, but there was nothing further to tell how terribly she was suffering. With the utmost coolness she drew the ring from her finger and was about to hand it to him, when she changed her mind suddenly. “No, I won’t give it back. I’ll keep it,” she said, quietly. “It will be a constant reminder of a man’s perfidy. Any time when you want the price of it let me know. You are mean enough to ask for it,” she said, with a shrug of her shoulders. George Colebrook’s face was a study for a moment. He looked first at one of the girls and then at the other. “You had better go,” said Miss Allyn, coolly. “You can see that you are out of place. My friends, like myself, despise a traitor.” With a glance of hatred toward Marion, the fellow turned and fled. The moment he was gone, Miss Allyn dropped heavily on the sofa. “It has killed her!” cried Dollie, darting to her side. “She has fainted. Bring some water,” was Marion’s answer. “It is all for the best, dear; do try and think so,” urged Marion a few minutes later, when Miss Allyn opened her eyes. Miss Allyn drew herself up slowly and looked around. “So it is all over, my dream of love,” she said, very slowly. “Well, I guess I’ve got spunk enough to pull me through. Where’s that looking-glass, Dollie. I want to smash the pieces.” That was the last the girls heard of Miss Allyn’s love affair. Her lover’s name was buried in oblivion from that very moment. If Miss Allyn grieved for him, she did not show it, but, if anything, she became a trifle more sad and pessimistic. “It would have killed me, I know,” Dollie told Marion in confidence. “Why, if Ralph should deceive me, I’d commit suicide, I’m certain.” “Well, then, you’d be a little goose, that’s all I’ve got to say,” was Marion’s answer. “Why, any one would think to hear you, Dollie, that Ralph was the only man in the world worth having.” “Sometimes I think he is,” said Dollie, complacently. Her faith in her lover was something that passed comprehension. That evening both Dollie and Miss Allyn went out, Dollie with her lover and Miss Allyn on business. As Marion seated herself in a big arm-chair in the semi-darkness, she looked around their little home with a sigh of genuine pleasure. “I almost hate to leave it,” she said aloud. “It is so sweet, so homelike and so beautifully cosy.”