nt, she should have been large,
imperious, goddess-like, and commanding. But God is at times ironical
with suffering womanhood. She could only writhe her hand from his grasp
with childish contortions; she could only glare at him with eyes that
were prettily and piquantly brilliant; she could only slap at his
detaining hand with a plump and velvety palm, and when she found her
voice it was high falsetto. And all she could say was, "Leave me be,
looney, or I'll scream!"

He rose, with a weak, confused laugh, half of miserable affectation and
half of real anger and shame.

"What did you come riding over here for, then? What did you take all
this risk for? Why did you rush over here to share my disgrace--for YOU
are as much mixed up with this now as I am--if you didn't calculate to
share EVERYTHING ELSE with me? What did you come here for, then, if not
for ME?"

"What did I come here for?" said Mrs. Baker, with every drop of red
blood gone from her cheek and trembling lip. "What--did--I--come here
for? Well!--I came here for JOHN BAKER'S sake! John Baker, who stood
between you and death at Burnt Ridge, as I stand between you and
damnation at Laurel Run, Mr. Green! Yes, John Baker, lying under half of
Burnt Ridge, but more to me this day than any living man crawling over
it--in--in"--oh, fatal climax!--"in a month o' Sundays! What did I come
here for? I came here as John Baker's livin' wife to carry on dead John
Baker's work. Yes, dirty work this time, may be, Mr. Green! but his work
and for HIM only--precious! That's what I came here for; that's what
I LIVE for; that's what I'm waiting for--to be up to HIM and his work
always! That's me--Betsy Baker!"

She walked up and down rapidly, tying her chip hat under her chin again.
Then she stopped, and taking her chamois purse from her pocket, laid it
sharply on the desk.

"Stanton Green, don't be a fool! Rise up out of this, and be a man
again. Take enough out o' that bag to pay what you owe Gov'ment, send
in your resignation, and keep the rest to start you in an honest life
elsewhere. But light out o' Hickory Hill afore this time to-morrow."

She pulled her mantle from the wall and opened the door.

"You are going?" he said bitterly.

"Yes." Either she could not hold seriousness long in her capricious
little fancy, or, with feminine tact, she sought to make the parting
less difficult for him, for she broke into a dazzling smile. "Yes, I'm
goin' to run Blue Lightning ag