"I saw an account of the smuggling episode in an American newspaper," he said coolly. "Then, quite naturally, I looked up Miss Forbes at the customs department, and she gave me your address. It was surprisingly simple, you see, though it might easily have been far otherwise." Jane bent her crimson face over her work. Her needle snapped in her trembling fingers. "I--I didn't know about that dreadful woman," she said in a low, shamed voice. "I supposed she was going to travel in America. How _could_ I have known!" Mr. Towle bent forward, his melancholy gray eyes filled with the warm light of pity and that deeper feeling to which it is said to be akin. "Poor little girl," he said in a deep voice, which fell upon Jane's ears like a caress. "You couldn't have known, of course. And I say it's all a beastly shame--the way they have treated you and all. Won't you let me take care of you after this, Jane? You shall never suffer so again." Jane tried to answer; but somehow the words refused to come. "Let me take you away from all this," he pleaded. "Won't you, dear?" At this moment Master Belknap slowly climbed up the steps. "My neck is hot," he said seriously, "an' I want a dwink of water." Jane arose with a sigh of relief. "Yes, Buster," she said eagerly. "I'll go and fetch it for you." The little boy turned his clear eyes upon the man and studied him in silence for a minute. "Why did _you_ come?" he said at length. Mr. Towle looked down at the child with resignation. "If I should ask you the same question, my young man," he observed, "you wouldn't understand, I suppose. As a matter of fact, if you had--er--stayed away ten minutes longer, perhaps----" "My Uncle Jack has a knife named after him," proceeded the child confidentially. "It is a Jack-knife. I yuve my Uncle Jack, an'--an' I yuve my Jane." "Hum--ah," observed Mr. Towle. Then he removed his hat--for it was a warm day--and passed his handkerchief thoughtfully over the top of his bald head. Jane caught a fleeting glimpse of its dull, pale glisten as she paused with her hand on the latch of the screen door. Her face, as she held the glass for the child to drink, was so severely grave and sweet that the Honorable Wipplinger's heart gave a sudden painful throb. "You haven't answered my question, Jane," he murmured, bending toward her. She looked up at him with the merciless eyes of youth. "I really cannot do as you wish, Mr. Towle," she said slowly. "And--I must ask you to go away directly; I ought not to have talked with you here without Mrs. Belknap's permission." "I can't leave you here in this false position," he said hoarsely. "For God's sake, Jane, listen to me! If you'll not marry me, let me take you home--back to England. This is no place for you." Jane's pretty lips set in stubborn lines. "I shall stop here," she said, "until I have earned money enough to go back to England; then I shall find a--a position--somewhere."