o's hoofs on the road, and she recognized its portent as did
the girl in the shadows.

A pale young moon had risen, and in its light the drive lay like a
curving white ribbon, the approaching figures of pony and man melting
together, yet sharply distinct. Willa waited until the rider had
dismounted, then bolstered herself upright and held out a thin little
hand.

"Willa! It is really you, at last!"

He sank down on the steps beside her and somehow forgot to relinquish
her hand.

"Yes, it is really I!" she smiled. "Mrs. Bailey told me of your
never-failing calls and inquiries. You have been very kind----"

"Kind? Did you think that I could help myself, that I could have
stayed away?" He broke off, his voice hoarse with pent-up feeling.
"Forgive me! I did not mean to annoy you again, but the sight of you
after so many days, lying here so white and frail and crushed----"

"I'm not!" She laughed nervously. "But you don't annoy me! I love to
hear you say that you have wanted to see me, that you could not stay
away!"

"Oh, don't, please!" He turned away with a gesture of pain. "Don't
play with me again, Willa, girl! I can't quite bear it!"

"Kearn!" her voice thrilled, low and surpassingly sweet in his ears.
"I never played with you, never! I told you in Topaz Gulch that I had
much to explain and you much to forgive. I was deliberately misled, my
mind poisoned against you, but the fault was mine, in being so easily
influenced against the real truth. I knew it in my heart, but I was in
such a maze of difficulties and cross-purposes that I did not know
which way to turn, and I shut my ears to the dictates of my own belief.
Do you remember that night in the conservatory?"

"I am not likely to forget it." His tones were shaking and he had
turned his head away.

"Someone was listening, someone who hated us both, and acting under the
impulse of a blind infatuation, had become a tool in stronger, more
ruthless hands. When I reached home that night, a letter in your
handwriting was put before me; a letter which seemed to prove that
you--you had known before ever Mr. North came to Limasito who I was and
that you had planned to marry me.--Oh, can't you understand?"

"A letter in my handwriting?" he repeated slowly. "It could not be----"

"But it was!" Willa laughed, but there was a little running sob
through her words. "You told me the truth about it yourself, out in
Topaz Gulch."

"I?" Thode turn