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14 fancied discovery and eager rushing hope. He had been looking away beyond the Crossing. Now he turned to her, and became aware that she was watching him. In an instant there was the shock of a recoil. The sweet indifference of her gaze, the mere friendly curiosity, the slight touch of feminine coquetry in her smile checked all his ardour, and made him draw back and pull himself together as though he had been hurt. He said very quietly:

"It is you who have grasped the dramatic points of the situation, Miss Valliant. I think you must have been giving Braile lessons."

She looked away from him and back again quickly.

"It interested me," she said. "I am interested in Moonlight. I should like very much to see him. But," she added with a little laugh, "even if he carried me off, as you suggested, I shouldn't get a sight of his face. They say no one has ever seen him without his mask."

"Perhaps be doesn't wear it in his hiding-place," said Frank. "I am sorry for Slaney," he went on in the same dulled tone. "And I am glad he kept his promise to Moonlight. I shall always think better of him for that. Yes—I am sorry—though" He paused.

"Well?" she said, "Though?"

"Though of course his death gives me a chance of standing for the Luya. Not that it matters so much. I should have got in for the northern district."

"But this will be much nicer," said she, demurely. "You won't have to go away on electioneering tours, and being our own especial member, we shall have a right to order you about, and to be interested in your general career."

"Shall you really be interested in my career?" he asked, bending a little toward her. She looked at him, letting her big brown eyes rest full on his for a moment or two.

"Why, yes, naturally, and as far as we are concerned, I assure you your duties as member of Parliament will be no sinecure. When Ina and Horace and I want anything from the Government—such as a mail twice a week or a railway to the Luya, or any little trifle of that sort, we shall expect