"You see, Frank," she went on, after a pause; "we women have to make or unmake our lives very much in the dark. No one helps us, and if we have not a brother to do so, we are groping in the dark. Look at me. Here was I, believing that Mr. Carthew, whom I met everywhere in society, was, except that he kept race horses and bet heavily, as good as other men. He was very pleasant, very good looking, generally liked, and infinitely more amusing than most men one meets. How was I to tell what he really was? "On the other hand, there were you, my dear friend, who, I knew, had shown yourself a very brave soldier, and whom also everyone liked and spoke well of, but of whose real character I did not know much, except on the side that was always presented to me; and now I find you capable of what I consider a grand act of generosity." "You overrate the matter altogether, Bertha. The man shot me by mistake. The fellow he took me for richly deserved shooting. When he found it was a mistake, the poor fellow was bitterly sorry for it. Surely, there was nothing more to be said about it." The girl sat silent for some time. "Well, it is all cleared up now," she said at last. "There is no reason why we should not be friends as of old." "None whatever," he said. "There has been only--" and he stopped short. "Only what, Frank?" "Nothing," he said. "We will be just as we were, Bertha. I will try and be the good elder brother, and scold you and look after you, and warn you, if it should be necessary, until you get under other guidance." "It will be some time," she said, quietly, "before that happens. I have had a sharp lesson." "And did you really care for him much, Bertha?" "I don't think that I really cared for him at all," she said. "That is not the lesson that I was thinking of." He saw the colour mount into her cheeks as she twisted the handkerchief she held into a knot. Then, turning to him, she said: "Frank, are you never going to give me a chance again?" He could not misunderstand her. "Do you mean--can you mean, Bertha?" he said, in a low tone. "Do you mean that if I ask you the same question again you will give me a different answer?"