speech with you, did he?" inquired the man,
nervously, brushing his sandy whiskers with unquiet fingers.

"I reckon he did," acknowledged Judith without coquetry, without
interest.

"Jude!" burst out the widower, "I promised you I never would again ax you
to wed; but I'm obliged to know ef you're studyin' about takin' that
feller."

"No," said Judith, resenting nothing, "I never did aim to wed Blatch
Turrentine, and I never will."

The elder stood directly in her path, blocking the way and staring down
at her miserably for a long minute.

"That's what you always used to tell me," he remarked finally with a
heavy sigh. "Back in them days when you let me hope that I'd see you
settin' by my fireside with my children on your knees, you always talked
thataway about Blatch--I reckon you talked thataway of me to him."

Judith's pale cheek slowly crimsoned. She looked upon the ground. "I'm
mighty sorry," she said slowly.

Elihu Drane's faded eyes lighted with fresh fires. He caught the hand
that hung by her side.

"Oh, Jude--do you mean it?" he cried. "Do you care? You don't know how
the chaps all love ye and want ye. That old woman I've got doin' for 'em
ain't fittin' to raise 'em. Everybody tells me I've got to marry and give
'em a mother, but I cain't seem to find nobody but you. If you feel
thataway--if you'll----"

Judith drew her hand away with finality, but her eyes were full of
pitying kindness. She knew now what she had done to this man. By the
revealing lamp of her own suffering she read his. Back in the old days
she had counted him only one more triumph in her maiden progress.

"No," she said gravely, "I ain't studyin' about marryin' anybody. I'm
mighty sorry that I done thataway. I'm sorry, and ashamed; but I have to
say no again, Elder Drane. There ain't never goin' to be no other
answer."

"Hit's that feller Bonbright," declared the elder sternly as he stood
aside to let her pass. "Good Lord, why ain't the man got sense enough to
come back and claim his own!"

Chapter XXII

Ebb-Tide

Life closed in on Judith after that with an iron hand. She missed sorely
the children's demands upon her, their play and prattle and movement
about the place. Huldah was gone. Wade was gone. She could get no news of
Creed. The things to love and hate and be jealous of seemed to have
dropped out of her existence, so that the heart recoiled upon itself, the
spirit wrestled blindly in darkness with an angel whi