for his words--perhaps she was.

"Tha canst come in an' say what tha has to say an' be done wi' it," he
said at last, in a sullen, worn-out fashion.

She turned round then and faced him, harder to be met in her rigid mood
than if she had been a tempest.

"Tha knows what I ha' getten to say," she answered, her tone strained
and husky with repressed fierceness. "Aye! tha knows it well enough.
I ha' not much need to tell thee owt. He comn here this morning an' he
towd me aw I want to know about thee, Seth Lonas--an' more too."

"He comn to me," put in the man.

She advanced towards the table and struck it once with her hand.

"Tha'st towd me a power o' lies," she said. "Tha's lied to me fro' first
to last to serve thy own eends, an' tha'st gained 'em--tha'st lied me
away fro' th' man as wur aw th' world to me, but th' time's comn now
when thy day's o'er an' his is comn agen. Ah! thou bitter villain! Does
ta mind how tha comn an' towd me Dan Morgan had gone to th' fair at Lake
wi' that lass o' Barnegats? That wur a lie an' that wur th' beginnin'.
Does ta mind how tha towd me as he made light o' me when th' lads an'
lasses plagued him, an' threeped 'em down as he didna mean to marry no
such like lass as me--him as wur ready to dee fur me? That wur a lie an'
that wur th' eendin', as tha knew it would be, fur I spurned him fro' me
th' very next day, an' wouldna listen when he tried to straighten' out.
But he got at th' truth at last when he wur fur fro' here, an' he browt
th' truth back to me to-day, an' theer's th' eend fur thee--husband or
no."

The man, lay with his head upon his arms until she had finished, and
then he looked up all white and shaken and blind.

"Wilt ta listen if I speak to thee?" he asked.

"Aye," she answered, "listen to more lies!"

And she slipped down into a sitting posture on the stone door-step, and
sat there, her great eyes staring out seaward, her hands lying loose
upon her knee, and trembling.

There was something more in her mood than resentment. In this simple
gesture she had broken down as she had never broken down in her life
before. There was passionate grief in her face, a wild sort of despair,
such as one might see in a suddenly-wounded, untamed creature. Hers was
not a fair nature. I am not telling the story of a gentle, true-souled
woman--I am simply relating the incidents of one bitter day whose tragic
close was the ending of a rough romance.

Her life had been a long batt