"What episode?" gasped Aldred, suddenly red to the tips of her ears.
"Don't blush so, darling! I won't speak about it again, if you'd rather not; but I should like to tell you how much I admire you, not only for what you did, but for the way you've tried to make nothing of it afterwards. It's only one girl in a thousand who would have had the courage to rush into that blazing house, and crawl upstairs and down again; or the presence of mind to tie a wet handkerchief over the little boy's mouth. I should never have thought of that, I'm certain. Do you mind my mentioning it to you just this once?"
Now was Aldred's chance. The occasion when she might deny her identity with the heroine of the fire had come at last! How easily the mistake could be corrected, and the matter set right! She looked nervously at Mabel, and words struggled painfully to her lips.
"I—I'm afraid—you——" she began.
"Yes, dearest?" There was a little thrill in Mabel's voice.
"You're—you're thinking too—too well of me——" stammered Aldred, trying desperately to take the fatal plunge.
Mabel simply smiled. Her blue eyes were gazing into her friend's with adoring affection; her face showed how deeply her feelings were stirred, and how earnestly she meant all she had said.
"I was at Seaforth——" continued Aldred.
"But—but——"