bting that he had acted for the best when he assumed the
risk on that sad night to shield his master's wife. It was a thing that
a man must do, that a man would do again.

He did not know that Alice Price, doubting not him, but the woman who
had just left the witness-stand and resumed her place among the people,
was that moment searching out the shallow soul of Ollie Chase with her
accusing eyes. She sat only a little way from Ollie, in the same row of
benches, beside the colonel. She turned a little in her place so she
could see the young widow's face when she came down from the stand with
that new light in her eyes. Now she whispered to her father, and looked
again, bending forward a little in a way that seemed impertinent,
considering that it was Alice Price.

Ollie was disconcerted by this attention, which drew other curious eyes
upon her. She moved uneasily, making a bustle of arranging herself and
her belongings in the seat, her heart troubled with the shadow of some
vague fear.

Why did Alice Price look at her so accusingly? Why did she turn to her
father and nod and whisper that way? What did she know? What could she
know? What was Joe Newbolt and his obscure life to Colonel Price's fine
daughter, sitting there dressed better than any other woman in the room?
Or what was Isom Chase, his life, his death, or his widow, to her?

Yet she had some interest beyond a passing curiosity, for Ollie could
feel the concentration of these sober brown eyes upon her, even when she
turned to avoid them. She recalled the interest that Colonel Price and
his daughter had taken in Joe. People had talked of it at first. They
couldn't understand it any more than she could. The colonel and his
daughter had visited Joe in jail, and carried books to him, and treated
him as one upon their own level.

What had Joe told them? Had the coward betrayed her?

Ollie was assailed again by all her old, dread fears. What if they
should get up and denounce her? With all of Colonel Price's political
and social influence, would not the public, and the judge and jury,
believe Joe's story if he should say it was true? She believed now that
it was all arranged for Joe to denounce her, and that timid invasion of
color was stemmed in her cheeks again.

It was a lowering day, with a threat of unseasonable darkness in the
waning afternoon. The judge looked at his watch; Captain Taylor stirred
himself and pushed the shutters back from the two windows