upon
Geoffrey's face, showing it was white with anger. Looking from
Geoffrey, the girl glanced towards Leslie, who waited in the partial
shadow of a hazel bush. Even had he desired to escape, which was
possible, the bush would have cut off his retreat.

Geoffrey turned fiercely from one to the other. The woman, who stood
with one hand on a birch branch, was evidently struggling to regain her
courage. Her lips were twitching and her pale blue eyes were very wide
open. The man was shrinking back as far as possible in a manner which
suggested physical fear; he had heard the dalesfolk say a savage devil,
easily aroused, lurked in all the Thurstons, and the one before him
looked distinctly dangerous just then. Leslie was weak in limb as well
as moral fiber, and it was Geoffrey who broke the painful silence.

"What are you doing here at such an hour with this man, Millicent?" he
asked sternly. "No answer! It appears that some explanation is
certainly due to me--and I mean to force it out of one of you."

Millicent, saying nothing, gazed at her companion, as if conjuring him
to speak plainly and to end an intolerable position. Geoffrey read her
meaning, even though Leslie, who glanced longingly over his shoulder
down the drive, refused to do so. Because there was spirit in her, and
she had recovered from the first shock of surprise, Millicent ground
one little heel into the mosses with a gesture of disgust and anger
when the man made answer:

"I resent your attitude and question. We came out to see the moon rise
on the moor, and found the night breeze nipping."

Geoffrey laughed harshly before he repeated: "You found the breeze
nipping! There is scarcely an air astir. And you understand the
relations existing between Miss Austin and me? I want a better reason.
Millicent, you, at least, are not a coward--dare you give it me?"

"I challenge your right to demand an account of my actions," said the
girl. With an evident effort to defy Thurston, she added, after a
pause, "But the explanation must have come sooner or later, and you
shall have it now. I have grown--perhaps the brutal truth is
best--tired of you and your folly. You would sacrifice my future to
your fantastic pride--and this man would give up everything for me."

The first heat of Geoffrey's passion was past, and he was now coldly
savage because of the woman's treachery.

"Including his conscience and honor, but not his personal safety!" he
s