is no passport to
your favor, yet that is no reason you should be unjust. I do not think I
have ever been guilty of but one ungentlemanly act toward you, and that
was unavoidable--I mean listening to your conversation with Captain
Le Gaire."

She shuddered, and gave utterance to a little cry.

"I loved you; with all my heart I loved you," I went on swiftly, driven
by a sudden rush of passion. "What you said then gave me a right to
tell you so."

"And was it because I was unwilling to listen that--that you did what
you did later?" she broke in hastily.

"Did later! You mean that I consented to meet Le Gaire?"

"Yes--that you compelled him to fight you; that you--Oh, God! Why bring
this all up again?"

"Merely because nothing occurred of which I am ashamed. Without doubt it
was my love for you which caused the trouble. But I was not the
aggressor. Did you suppose otherwise? Le Gaire deliberately struck me
across the face."

She rose again to her feet, her cheeks blazing.

"It was the answer of a gentleman to an insult given the woman he was to
marry," proudly.

"The answer to an insult! What insult?"

"You know; I shall not demean myself to repeat the words."

So this was what she had been told! Well, I could block that lie with a
sentence.

"Miss Hardy," I asked soberly, "are you aware that your father refused
to act for Captain Le Gaire, but went to the field as my second?"

"No," her whole expression indicative of surprise. "Impossible!"

"But it was not impossible, for it was true. Captain Bell had to be send
for to second Le Gaire, and he did it under protest. Do you imagine your
father would have taken my part if I had uttered one word reflecting
upon you?"

She attempted to speak, but failed, and I took advantage of the silence.

"Major Hardy is in the hall, and will corroborate all I say. Perhaps I
ought not to attempt my own defence, but this misunderstanding is too
grave to continue. There is too much at stake in your life and mine.
From what you have already said it is evident you have been
deceived--probably that deception did not end merely with the
commencement of the quarrel."

"Did--did Major Hardy truly second you?" she interrupted, apparently
dazed. "I--I can hardly comprehend."

"He did; he even volunteered to do so. Le Gaire charged you with being
unduly intimate with me, and your father resented his words. The man
began threatening as soon as I entered the room, and finally st