ickered in her face. She leaned forward a little, eagerly, as
if to speak, but said nothing. Joe shrank back from her, his hand
pressing heavily upon the table.

"I never meant to tell him," said he slowly.

She sprang toward him, her hands clasped appealingly.

"Then you'll let me go, you'll let me go?" she cried eagerly. "I can't
stay here," she hurried on, "you know I can't stay here, Joe, and suffer
like he's made me suffer the past year! You say Morgan won't come----"

"The coward, to try to steal a man's wife, and deceive you that way,
too!" said Joe, his anger rising.

"Oh, you don't know him as well as I do!" she defended, shaking her head
solemnly. "He's so grand, and good, and I love him, Joe--oh, Joe, I love
him!"

"It's wrong for you to say that!" Joe harshly reproved her. "I don't
want to hear you say that; you're Isom's wife."

"Yes, God help me," said she.

"You could be worse off than you are, Ollie; as it is you've got a
_name_!"

"What's a name when you despise it?" said she bitterly.

"Have you thought what people would say about you if you went away with
Morgan, Ollie?" inquired Joe gently.

"I don't care. We intend to go to some place where we're not known,
and----"

"Hide," said Joe. "Hide like thieves. And that's what you'd be, both of
you, don't you see? You'd never be comfortable and happy, Ollie,
skulking around that way."

"Yes, I would be happy," she maintained sharply. "Mr. Morgan is a
gentleman, and he's good. He'd be proud of me, he'd take care of me like
a lady."

"For a little while maybe, till he found somebody else that he thought
more of," said Joe. "When it comes so easy to take one man's wife, he
wouldn't stop at going off with another."

"It's a lie--you know it's a lie! Curtis Morgan's a gentleman, I tell
you, and I'll not hear you run him down!"

"Gentlemen and ladies don't have to hide," said Joe.

"You're lying to me!" she charged him suddenly, her face coloring
angrily. "He wouldn't go away from here on the say-so of a kid like you.
He's down there waiting for me, and I'm going to him."

"I wouldn't deceive you, Ollie," said he, leaving his post near the
door, opening a way for her to pass. "If you think he's there, go and
see. But I tell you he's gone. He asked me to shut my eyes to this thing
and let you and him carry it out; but I couldn't do that, so he went
away."

She knew he was not deceiving her, and she turned on him with
reproaches.

"You