"
"You poor child! Really, I must scold Aaron for this. After my warning
him, too, that people were talking about his intimacy with you in the
mountains It is quite too bad of him! He will ruin himself, if he is not
more careful." She seemed sincerely troubled over the situation.
"I--I do not understand, Mrs. Taine," faltered Sibyl. "Do you mean that
my--that Mr. King's friendship for me has harmed him? That I--that it is
wrong for me to come here?"
"Surely, Miss Andres, you must understand what I mean."
"No, I--I do not know. Tell me, please."
Mrs. Taine hesitated as though reluctant. Then, as if forced by her sense
of duty, she spoke. "The truth is, my dear, that your being with Mr. King
in the mountains--going to his camp as familiarly as you did, and spending
so much time alone with him in the hills--and then your coming here so
often, has led people to say unpleasant things."
"But what do people say?" persisted Sibyl.
The answer came with cruel deliberateness; "That you are not only Mr.
King's model, but that you are his mistress as well."
Sibyl Andres shrank back from the woman as though she had received a blow
in the face. Her cheeks and brow and neck were crimson.
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