friends. I left you
together. In my blind innocence I aided you in every way--a simple,
loving fool. Oh, now I see!"

"Yes, yes, I know. Your words stab me. It's all true, true."

"You came like a serpent, a foul, crawling thing, to steal her from me,
to wrong me. She was loving, faithful, pure. You would have dragged her
in the mire. You----"

"Stop, brother, stop, for Heaven's sake! You wrong me."

He held out his hand commandingly. A wonderful change had come over him.
His face had regained its calm. It was proud, stern.

"You must not think I would have been guilty of that," he said quietly.
"I've played a part I never thought to play; I've done a thing I never
thought to have dirtied my hands in the doing, and I'm sorry and ashamed
for it. But I tell you, Athol--that's all. As God's my witness, I've
done you no wrong. Surely you don't think me as low as that? Surely you
don't believe that of me? I did what I did for my very love for you, for
your honour's sake. I asked her here that you might see what she
was--but that's all, I swear it. She's been as safe as if in a cage of
steel."

"I know it," I said; "I know it. You don't need to tell me that. You
brought her here to expose her, to show me what a fool I was. It didn't
matter how much it hurt me, the more the better, anything to save the
name. You would have broken my heart, sacrificed me on the altar of
your accursed pride. Oh, I can see plainly now! There's a thousand years
of prejudice and bigotry concentrated in you. Thank God, I have a human
heart!"

"I thought I was acting for the best!" he cried.

I laughed scornfully.

"I know it--according to your lights. You asked her here that I might
see what she was. You tell me you have gained her love; you say she came
here at your bidding; you swear she would have been unfaithful to me.
Well, I tell you, brother of mine, in your teeth I tell you--_I don't
believe you!_"

Suddenly the little, drooping figure on the chair had raised itself; the
white, woe-begone face with the wide, staring eyes was turned towards
me; the pitiful look had gone, and in its stead was one of wild,
unspeakable joy.

"It's all right, Berna," I said; "I don't believe him, and if a million
others were to say the same, if they were to thunder it in my ears down
all eternity, I would tell them they lied, they lied!"

A heaven-lit radiance was in the grey eyes. She made as if to come to
me, but she swayed, and I caught her in