ee it now, and--and I'm ashamed, dreadfully ashamed--I feel
the redness mounting to--to the very roots of my hair--and it
overwhelms me. Don't--don't you feel something of--of the same sort,
or--or do you still think the joke was a good one?"

She had grown rather excited and it was quite true that a deep blush
was now mantling her face. In her halting speech--in the words that
had come slowly at first, and then had flowed more rapidly, there had
been wounded pride beside the deep resentment and the pain.

"Do--do you really believe such a thing?" answered the man, wincing
again. "You speak of something that is an abomination, that would
stink in a decent man's nostrils. And--and you speak of shame! Do you
think such a word could express all that a man would be overwhelmed
with if he had done such a thing? Great Heavens! Miss Nelson, a man
having once committed such a crime would be humiliated for the rest of
his life, it seems to me. It would be an unpardonable sin for which
there could be no forgiveness, none surely on the part of the woman,
and none that the man could ever grant himself. It--it surely isn't
possible that any such thing has occurred, that any man could so lower
himself beneath all the dirt that his feet have ever trodden."

He spoke strongly, his face now also high in color, his voice
tremulous and indignant, his hard right fist clenched till the arm
vibrated with the strain.

Madge looked at him again. For a moment his tone had been convincing
and she had nearly believed that he spoke the truth. But the evidence
against him was too strong.

"That--that big Stefan, your friend, the man who says that you saved
his life, knew that I was coming," she faltered, her voice shaking
while her body felt limp with the infinite discouragement that had
returned to her in full. "He brought you my message, at least he told
me so. What--what is the use of my saying anything more? I--I think we
might as well be going on, if--if you and your dog are rested. He--he
looks like a decent fellow, Maigan does. There are things a dog
wouldn't do, I'm sure."

"Miss Nelson, as God is my judge, I'm guiltless in this matter," the
man's voice rang out.

"Go on, Maigan, mush on!" he called, and leaned forward on the rope,
passed over one shoulder. Her last words had brought a moment of anger
and indignation. Save for the few words he had uttered he felt it
useless to protest his innocence, and the notion of her insanity
r