as it came. After that, sin nor sickness could keep them from
being happy. If the girl talked of the better course of restoring the old
reserve, Hugh's hand would reach out imploringly:

"Only till I get well, dearest; I won't trouble your conscience after
that. I know you don't feel right about this, but I can't go back to a
life without any affection again while I'm here," and Elizabeth always
responded to that call. She reflected that even Luther could not condemn
her for it.

Yet when John was in the house or whenever she was obliged to be careful
about Hepsie, as she often was, she was outraged in her own sight, and her
colours trailed in the dust of humiliation, for she saw that the path she
was treading was one of unaccustomed duplicity.

"If I could only approve of myself," she said to Hugh, and then was sorry
she had spoken, for Hugh Noland's face grew more white and he closed his
eyes with a little sob.

"Oh, my darling," he said when he could speak again, "you long for that
and I like you for it too, but I'm weak. I want to be loved and petted,
and--I'm so tired that I don't want to think about it at all. Kiss me,
sweet," and Elizabeth kissed him, and was glad in spite of herself.

"You shall not have to think till you're well," she promised, and the days
ran on throughout the blazing summer, and Hugh improved, and Elizabeth won
Doctor Morgan's admiration as a nurse.

In the midst of the deceptions which Elizabeth Hunter was called upon to
practise, however, she followed the natural trend of her character in ways
which proved how fundamental truth and outrightness were in her make-up.
Having discussed Hugh with Luther, she told Hugh that she had done so.
This gave Hugh a wrong impression of affairs between the two which she was
obliged to set right.

"No, Luther never loved me--that is, he never said that he did. That isn't
the way we feel about each other. We've just been good friends always. We
herded cattle together and told each other things all our lives. I could
tell Luther anything."

"Well, he couldn't love that black-eyed thing he lives with," Hugh said.

"I don't know how it is myself, but he does, and Luther never lies. You
can see that he's square with her. He gives her a kind of companionship
that will keep her out of the position I'm in, too," she said with
conviction, and then saw the kind of blow that she had dealt, and covered
her face with her hands for shame.

Elizabeth heard the