ever would have entered
Thomas' head, to think any harm of a married woman. A different kind
of man would be on his guard against her and against himself, too. It
came on Thomas like a thunder-clap out of a clear sky."

Having reached the point of leniency toward her one-time lover,
severity with herself was a natural sequence. "'Tain't as if I was a
girl," Persis owned, in sorrowful compunction. "I'd ought to know what
men are by this time, and that the best of 'em need to be braced up by
some good woman's backbone." She could not escape from the painful
conviction that she had failed her friend. He had turned to her for
help and her hurt pride had rendered her oblivious to his need.

And pride was still to be reckoned with. Even now when she realized
her fault, she shrank from extending the olive branch. Thomas loved
her and had always loved her. The episode of Annabel Sinclair had not
altered his loyalty by so much as a ripple on the surface. And yet to
show by a lifted eyelash or a hand held out that she was ready to let
bygones be bygones seemed among the impossibilities. The generations
of dumb women whose blood ran in her veins stretched out ghostly hands
to hold her back from frankness. That was a woman's lot, to endure
silently and leave the initiative to the man.

June came and found her vacillating and uncertain. Mystic fragrances,
still whispery nights, dewy mornings, gay with flowers, were flung into
the scale. And when Diantha's wedding was but two days off, Persis
suddenly capitulated.

"I've always said that folks who'd let their lives go to smash for want
of speaking out deserved all they got. And now it looks as if I was
that sort of a fool myself. Algie!" Apparently apprehensive that
common sense would again yield the field to tradition, she flew: to the
window. "Algie!" she shrieked.

The boy came on the run. Something in Persis' voice made him aware
that the occasion did not admit of trifling.

"Algie, jump on your wheel and ride down to Mr. Hardin's store. Tell
him that if it's convenient I'd like to see him this evening. Quick
now."

Algie's obedience was instantaneous. With compressed lips Persis
watched his vanishing figure, her color coming and going.

"Well, so far, so good. I guess now I've got up my courage to send for
him I can leave the rest to luck."

Thomas came that evening, extremely self-conscious in a new suit, his
air of unwonted elegance heightene