The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-07
(Continued.)

, tCOnClnuS.Qy
 In spite of herself she was moved. Olive Castlemaine admired strong, masterful men. She could forgive :Sudeness where there was sincerity cad strength, and certainly she hao r.sver been wooed in this way before. She could not help comparing Leices- ter with men like Purvis and, Sprague. They were weak and effeninate De- side him. His very cynicism, his faithfulness seemed to her but as an expression of a strong nature, which was dissatisfied with conventions and a weak assent to commonly accepted beliefs. 1t is true she had seen his weakness, she had heard him express the purposelessness of his life, but she had also seen in him another Ra.foro Leicester which was great and strong And vet he had not won her. Some thing. she knew what, told her to re- fr,se. An indefinable fear, perhaps, owing to her Puritan training and her healthy upbringing, kept her from ut- tering the words he longed to hear.
 Still Radford Leicester had caused
  beaten before; never had she been drawn by such an admiration, an ao- niration akin to affection, as she was drawn now. He was strong man. and she instinctively felt that in him were the possibilities of greatness ana !: of goodness. She believed, too, that she could be the means of translatlng those possibilities into actual life; but ] she did not give him a ray of hope. few minutes before, she left like i speaking. Now the desire had gone. She had nothing to say, she knew not why.
 ..You are thinking of what you have !, heard about me- he said, "are you not 2"
 : Perhaps"
 He was silent for a moment. Per- hans it was because he thought of the ! night which led to this meeting, and as a consequence felt ashamed. once, on his way thither, he had thought ot telling her the whole story, but now 1 he would rather have suffered deatn !! than that she should know. Even ! then he determined that if either of the men who were parties to the shameful compact. should divulge the secret he would make their lives a hell. For Radford Leicester was not making love to gain wager. A pas sion to which he had hitherto been stranger had gripped him body ana soul At that moment Olive Castle 1aaine was everything to him. lie wouId have bartered his immortal soul to gain her love. The cold, cyn- ieal crust of the mans nature had been broken, and the hot lava Wnlcn had been lying beneath now burst forth.
 And you care for that" he said.
 "Yes, I care for that
 And if I had been what you call a good man, what then?"
 ..I do not know
 But it would influence you
 Ut would influence me greatly.
 You believe in all you have head?
 You have denied nothing-and no ,fr. Leicester. even if I loved a bad man, I would crush that love-tna' is. as you have been speaking or It.
 He called to mind what he hao said to Sprague and Purvls on the night the compact was made, ano while there was feeling of joy IT his heart at her words, the memory }, of that night pierced him like pols- oned arrow. This woman had dls' proved his creed by a single sentence For he knew that she meant it. There 1 was no weak, faltering hesltancy III 1 her words. The flash of her eyes the tone of her voice, told him thai she had uttered no idle threat. Here was a nature as strong as his own, nature which loved goodness as much as he had pretended to despise It.
 He felt that the ground was shp' ping under his feet, but he retained his calm.
 Wait a moment" he said, there is something else l want to say to you"