"But one was without blame, and but for the first there could not have occurred the humiliation of the second, and that, too"--she smiled in spite of herself--"in the presence of my detractors. It will be hard for you to rectify that, Sir Knight!" There was an altered tone in the girl's voice. The humorous phase was coming nearer the surface. Frank brightened. "Really, though," he persisted, "I was right about it's being foggy up there. Farnham would have said so, himself." "No doubt," she agreed, "but we could have reached that conclusion later. An expressed willingness to go would have spared me and all of us what followed. As it is, Edith Morrison thinks I wanted to deprive her of Robin on his one day at home, while he was obliged to make himself appear foolish before every one." "I wish you had as much consideration for me as you always show for Robin," said Frank, becoming suddenly aggrieved. "And why not for Robin?" The girl's voice became sharply crisp and defiant. "Who is entitled to it more than he--a poor boy who struggled when no more than a child to earn bread for his invalid mother and little sister; who has never had a penny that he did not earn; who never would take one, but in spite of all has fought his way to recognition and respect and knowledge? Oh, you don't know how he has struggled--you who have had everything from birth--who have never known what it is not to gratify every wish, nor what it feels like to go hungry and cold that some one else might be warm and fed." Miss Deane's cheeks were aglow, and her eyes were filled with fire. "It is by such men as Robin Farnham," she went on, "that this country has been built, with all its splendid achievements and glorious institutions, and the possibilities for such fortunes as yours. Why should I not respect him, and honor him, and love him, if I want to?" she concluded, carried away by her enthusiasm. Frank listened gravely to the end. Then he said, very gently: "There is no reason why you should not honor and respect such a man, nor, perhaps, why you should not love him--if you want to. I am sure Robin Farnham is a very worthy fellow. But I suppose even you do not altogether realize the advantage of having been born poor----" The girl was about to break in, but checked herself. "Of having been born poor," he repeated, "and compelled to struggle from the beginning. It gets to be a habit, you see, a sort of groundwork for character. Perhaps--I do not say it, mind, I only say perhaps--if Robin Farnham had been born with my advantages and I with his, it might have made a difference, don't you think, in your very frank and just estimate of us to-day? I have often thought that it is a misfortune to have been born with money, but I suppose I didn't think of it soon enough, and it seems pretty late now to go back and start all over. Besides, I have no one in need to struggle for. My mother is comfortably off, and I have no little suffering sister----"