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"And I wanted Jim after he died," added Elsa. "Those things are

bad enough; but one gets used to them. What I mean especially is

something we see about us all the time and have no chance of

getting. Did you ever want something like that, so that it nearly

killed you, and couldn't get it?"

Code was silent. The one rankling hurt of his whole life, after

seemingly being healed, broke out afresh--the engagement of Nat

Burns and Nellie Tanner.

He suddenly realized that, since seeing Elsa, he had not as much

as remembered Nellie's existence, when usually her mental

presence was not far from him. Elsa, with all her luxury and

alluring feminine charms, seemed to cast a spell that bound him

helpless like the music in the fairy stories. He liked the spell,

and, after all she had done, he confessed to an extraordinary

feeling for the enchantress.