"She--she always cries when she goes out with them together," she murmured piteously. "Oh, David, I'm so worried. I don't know why--I don't know what it is that causes me to feel this way. But I am frightened--always frightened." He took her little hand between his own; it was trembling perceptibly. Very gently he sought to reassure her, his heart so full that his voice was husky with the emotion that crowded up from it. "Nothing ever can happen to your mother, Christine--nothing. Please don't worry, little girl. Colonel Grand can't--won't do anything to hurt her. Your father won't let that happen. He won't--" "David, I am not so sure of that," she said slowly, looking straight into his eyes and speaking almost in a monotone. He started. For a moment he was speechless. "You must not say that, Christine," he said. "I don't know why I said it," she responded, nervously biting her nether lip. Then she smiled, her white teeth gleaming against the carmine. "She'll be back presently, I know. I'm so silly." "You are very young, you'll have to admit, after this display," he chided. She left him. Joey Grinaldi came in a few minutes later and took his _protege_ off to the ring, with the assurance that "the coast" was clear. All the rest of the afternoon David's heart ached with a dull pain. He could hardly wait for the time to come when he could return to the dressing-tent. At last, he raced from the ring, pursued by the inflated bladder in the hand of Joey Grinaldi, their joint mummery over for the afternoon. Christine was sitting on the trunk that he had occupied so recently; Mrs. Braddock was nowhere in sight. "David," she said slowly, as he drew up panting, "they did not go to the side-show." He was spared the necessity of an answer by the providential return of the girl's mother. She came in alone from the main tent. A glance showed them both that she had been crying. Christine sprang forward with a little cry and slipped her arm through her mother's. As they passed by David the mother's stiff, tense lips were moving painfully. He heard her say, as if to herself: "I cannot--I will not endure it any longer. I cannot, my child." David stood before her the next instant, his face writhing with fury, his hands clenched. "Is--is there anything I can do, Mrs. Braddock? Tell me! Can I do anything for you?" he cried. She stared for a moment, as if bewildered. Then her face lightened. The tears sprang afresh to her eyes. "No, David," she said gently. "There is nothing you can do." "But if there should be anything I can do--" he went on imploringly. She shook her head and smiled.