CHAPTER XXVT
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she gave herself to him heart and soul in the hour of his utter disaster will always be Alicia’s most blessed memory. That she stood by his side unfaltering during the following days of derision and humiliation and suspense will be her title to accomplished womanhood, whatever chances of high achievement the years may bring. Everyone of these days is cut clear in imperishable marble in her mind, and they are her most precious possessions. The world rang with the scandal. A thousand wires carried it to the ends of the earth; a thousand pens chronicled it; a million tongues voiced it. Alicia regarded the world with serene and defiant eyes, living intensely. The man was a man, and he was the man for her; and that was the beginning and end of the matter. She had found hersel
