wagon in which she was brought
from prison to court, Judge Dent came quickly to meet her.

"My niece, Miss Gordon, could not, of course, come into the court-room,
but she is here in the library, with her aunt, and desires to see you
for a moment?"

"Tell her I am grateful for her kind motives, but I wish to see no one
now."

"For your own sake, consider the--ah! here is my niece."

"I hope you need no verbal assurance of my deep sympathy, and my
constant prayers," said Leo, taking one passive hand between hers, and
pressing it warmly.

"Miss Gordon, I am comforted by your compassion, and by your unwavering
confidence in a stranger whom your townsmen hold up as a 'female
monster'. Because I so profoundly realize how good you are, I am
unwilling that you should identify yourself with my hopeless cause. My
sufferings will soon be over, and then I want no shadowy reflex cast
upon the smiling blue sky of your future. I have nothing more to lose,
save the burden of a life--that I shall be glad to lay down; but you--!
Be careful, do not jeopardize your beautiful dream of happiness."

"Why do you persist in rejecting the overtures of those who could
assist, who might successfully defend you? I beg of you, consent to
receive and confer with counsel, even to-night."

"You will never understand why I must not, till the earth gives up her
dead. You tremble, because only one more link can be added to the chain
that is coiling about my neck, and that link is the testimony of the
man whose name you expect to bear. Miss Gordon"--she stooped closer,
and whispered slowly: "Do not upbraid your lover; be tender, cling to
him; and afford me the consolation of knowing that the unfortunate
woman you befriended, and trusted, cast not even a fleeting shadow
between your heart and his. Pray for me, that I may be patient and
strong. God bless you."

Turning swiftly, she hurried on to the officer, who had courteously
withdrawn a few yards distant. As he opened the door of the wagon, he
handed her a loosely folded sheet of paper.

"I promised to deliver your answer as soon as possible."

By aid of the red glow, burning low in the western sky, she read:

"Mr. Dunbar requests that for her own sake, Miss Brentano will grant
him an interview this evening."

"My answer must necessarily be verbal. Say that I will see no one."

To the solitude and darkness of prison she fled for relief, as into
some merciful sheltering arms; and not even