Isabel unclasped Rose's arm and faced her.
"A circus rider!"
Rose colored hotly and looked away.
"I—can't tell you about it—you'd laugh and—well, I don't care to explain."
Isabel looked at her with comical gravity.
"Do you know what you've done, 'coolly' girl? You know the common opinion of woman's curiosity? I don't believe a woman is a bit more curious than a man, only a woman is curious about things he isn't. I'm suffering agonies this minute. You know I'm an alienist. I've studied mad people so much I know just what sends them off. You've started me. If you don't explain at once—" She went to the door and called, "Etta! Don't disturb me, no matter who comes."
"Now tell me about it," she said, as she sat down beside Rose and studied her with avid eyes.
"Why, it's nothing," Rose began. "I never spoke to him, and he never even saw me, and I never saw him but once—"
"And yet he influenced your whole life?"
Rose mused a moment: