bove her somber garb,
as if it was the one spot in her where any of the sunshine of her past
remained. Alice went to her with determined directness. She bent over
her, and took her by the hand.

"Thank you! You're the bravest woman in the world!" she said.

Ollie looked up, wonder and disbelief struggling against the pathetic
hopelessness in her eyes. Alice bent lower. She kissed the young widow's
pale forehead.

Joe was ashamed that he had forgotten Ollie. He saw tears come into
Ollie's eyes as she clung closer to Alice's hand, and he heard the
shocked gasping of women, and the grunts of men, and the stirring murmur
of surprise which shook the crowd. He opened the little gate in the
railing and went out.

"You didn't have to do that for me, Ollie," said he, kindly; "I could
have got on, somehow, without that."

"Both of you--" said Ollie, a sob shaking her breath; "it was for both
of you!"

There was a churchlike stillness around them. Colonel Price had
advanced, and now stood near the little group, a look of understanding
in his kind old face. Ollie mastered her sudden gust of weeping, and
shook her disordered hair back from her forehead, a defiant light in her
eyes.

"I don't care now, I don't care what _anybody_ says!" said she.

Her mother glanced around with the fire of battle in her eyes. In that
look she defied the public, and uttered her contempt for its valuation
and opinion. Alice Price had lifted her crushed and broken daughter up.
She had taken her by the hand, and she had kissed her, to show the world
that she did not hold her as one defiled. Judge Maxwell and all of them
had seen her do it. She had given Ollie absolution before all men.

Ollie drew her cloak around her shoulders and rose to her feet.

"Remember that; for both of you, for one as much as the other," said
she, looking into Alice's eyes. "Come on, Mother; we'll go home now."

Ollie walked out of the court-room with her head up, looking the world
in the face. In place of the mark of the beast on her forehead, she was
carrying the cool benediction of a virtuous kiss. Joe and Alice stood
looking after her until she reached the door; even the most careless
there waited her exit as if it was part of some solemn ceremony. When
she had passed out of sight beyond the door, the crowd moved suddenly
and noisily after her. For the public, the show was over.

Alice looked up into Joe's face. There was uncertainty in his eyes
still, for he