ashamed. I
told him on the spot that I would marry him, but that I didn't love
him."

"I'll tell you what he answered--curse him!" exclaimed Sinclair.

"What?"

"Through the years that was comin', he'd teach you to love him."

"That was exactly what he said in those very words! How did you guess
that?"

"I'll tell you I got a sort of a second sight for the ways of a snake,
or an ornery hoss, or a sneak of a man. Go on!"

"I think you have. At any rate, after I had told him I'd marry him, he
pressed me to set the date as early as possible, and I agreed. There
was only a ten-day interval.

"Those ten days were filled. I kept myself busy so that I wouldn't have
a chance to think about the future, though of course I didn't really
know how I dreaded it. I talked to the only girl who was near enough to
me to be called a friend.

"'Find a man you can respect. That's the main thing,' she always said.
'You'll learn to love him later on.'

"It was a great comfort to me. I kept thinking back to that advice all
the time."

"They's nothing worse than a talky woman," declared Sinclair hotly. "Go
on!"

"Then, all at once, the day came. I'll never forget how I wakened that
morning and looked out at the sun. I had a queer feeling that even the
sunshine would never seem the same after that day. It was like going to
a death."

"So you went to this gent and told him just how you felt, and he let
your promise slide?"

"No."

Sinclair groaned.

"I couldn't go to him. I didn't dare. I don't imagine that I ever
thought of such a thing. Then there were crowds of people around all
day, giving me good wishes. And all the time I felt like death.

"Somehow I got to the church. Everything was hazy to me, and my heart
was thundering all the time. In the church there was a blur of faces.
All at once the blur cleared. I saw Jude Cartwright, and I knew I
couldn't marry him!"

"Brave girl!" cried Sinclair, his relief coming out in almost a shout.
"You stopped there at the last minute?"

"Ah, if I had! No, I didn't stop. I went on to the altar and met him
there, and--"

"You weren't married to him?"

"I was!"

"Go on," Sinclair said huskily.

"The end of it came somehow. I found a flood of people calling to me
and pressing around me, and all the time I was thinking of nothing but
the new ring on my finger and the weight--the horrible weight of it!

"We went back to my father's house. I managed to get away from all the
me