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Rh came a little more to the fore, and was a frequent visitor at Riverside, but he still kept to his line of not obtruding his love. One day Elsie asked him why he had so changed.

"I have not changed, and I shall never change," he answered. "I am always here—always ready to do anything you that want me to do. But you are quite free, Elsie, and I wish you to feel so. It is not I who have changed."

"Do you mean that I have changed?"

"Yes, you have greatly changed, and I can only guess at the meaning of the change."

"Tell me how I have changed," she said.

"You are restless, and your moods vary. Sometimes you look perfectly wretched; at others wildly happy. You are a barometer, Elsie, and the influence which affects your moods is Blake. You are expecting him now?"

"Frank, you insult me."

"I don't want to. I think that you are under the spell of some evil enchantment. It is not wholesome honest love. That is why I am patient, and why I feel certain that it will pass away."

"And then?"

"Oh then—then it may be my turn."

"Frank, I deny everything. Mr. Blake and I are playing a game—that is the whole truth. We agreed to see which could hurt the other most."

"It seems to me a dangerous game, Elsie—and as you play it, not a very womanly one."

"Dangerous! Perhaps; but for whom? Do you think that I am going to let myself be beaten. He has hurt other women, he shall not hurt me. You think I am unwomanly because I flirt with him openly; because I sit out dances with him, and allow myself to be talked about; because my manner gives people some reason for saying that I am in love with him. Well, we shall see. When he asks me to marry him I shall refuse him, and all the world shall know it."

"Elsie! You are undignified, I say again, you are unwomanly."