f I have said anything which you think
justifies this very abrupt leave-taking, I beg you will forgive and
forget it--or, at least, let it have no more weight with you than the
idle words of any woman. I only spoke generally. You know--I--I might be
mistaken."

His eyes, which had dilated when she began to speak, darkened; his
color, which had quickly come, as quickly sank when she had ended.

"Don't say that, Miss Carr. It is not like you, and--it is useless. You
know what I meant a moment ago. I read it in your reply. You meant that
I, like others, had deceived myself. Did you not?"

She could not meet those honest eyes with less than equal honesty.
She knew that Jessie did not love him--would not marry him--whatever
coquetry she might have shown.

"I did not mean to offend you," she said hesitatingly; "I only half
suspected it when I spoke."

"And you wish to spare me the avowal?" he said bitterly.

"To me, perhaps, yes, by anticipating it. I could not tell what ideas
you might have gathered from some indiscreet frankness of Jessie--or my
father," she added, with almost equal bitterness.

"I have never spoken to either," he replied quickly. He stopped, and
added, after a moment's mortifying reflection, "I've been brought up in
the woods, Miss Carr, and I suppose I have followed my feelings, instead
of the etiquette of society."

Christie was too relieved at the rehabilitation of Jessie's truthfulness
to notice the full significance of his speech.

"Good-by," he said again, holding out his hand.

"Good-by!"

She extended her own, ungloved, with a frank smile. He held it for a
moment, with his eyes fixed upon hers. Then suddenly, as if obeying
an uncontrollable impulse, he crushed it like a flower again and again
against his burning lips, and darted away.

Christie sank back in her saddle with a little cry, half of pain and
half of frightened surprise. Had the poor boy suddenly gone mad, or was
this vicarious farewell a part of the courtship of Devil's Ford? She
looked at her little hand, which had reddened under the pressure, and
suddenly felt the flush extending to her cheeks and the roots of her
hair. This was intolerable.

"Christie!"

It was her sister emerging from the wood to seek her. In another moment
she was at her side.

"We thought you were following," said Jessie. "Good heavens! how you
look! What has happened?"

"Nothing. I met Mr. Kearney a moment ago on the trail. He is going away,