a man here--your foreman, he said. I explained, and
he let me in. Trev--won't you welcome me?"

"It isn't the first time I've been in trouble." His laugh was harsh; it
made her cringe and cry:

"I've repented for that. I shouldn't have done it; I don't know what was
the matter with me. Harvey had been telling me things about you--"

"You wouldn't have believed him--" He laughed, cynically. "There's no use
of haggling over _that_--it's buried, and I've placed a monument over it:
'Here lies a fool that believed in a woman.' I don't reproach you--you
couldn't be blamed for not wanting to marry an idiot like me. But I
haven't changed. I still have my crazy ideas of honor and justice and
square-dealing, and my double-riveted faith in my ability to triumph over
all adversity. But women--Bah! you're all alike! You scheme, you plot, you
play for place; you are selfish, cold; you snivel and whine--There is more
of it, but I can't think of any more. But--let's face this matter
squarely. If you still like me, I'm sorry for you, for I can't say that
the sight of you has stirred any old passion in me. You shouldn't have
come out here."

"You're terribly resentful, Trev. And I don't blame you a bit--I deserve
it all. But don't send me away. Why, I--love you, Trev; I've loved you all
these years; I loved you when I sent you away--while I was married to
Harvey; and more afterwards--and now, deeper than ever; and--"

He shook his head and looked at her steadily--cynicism, bald derision in
his gaze. "I'm sorry; but it can't be--you're too late."

He dropped her hands, and she felt of the fingers where he had gripped
them. She veiled the quick, savage leap in her eyes by drooping the lids.

"You love Rosalind Benham," she said, quietly, looking at him with a
mirthless smile. He started, and her lips grew a trifle stiff. "You poor
boy!"

"Why the pity?" he said grimly.

"Because she doesn't care for you, Trev. She told me yesterday that she
was engaged to marry a man named Corrigan. He is out here, she said. She
remarked that she had found you very amusing during the three or four
weeks of Corrigan's absence, and she seemed delighted because the court
out here had ruled that the land you thought was yours belongs to the man
who is to be her husband."

He stiffened at this, for it corroborated Corrigan's words: "She is heart
and soul with me in this deal, She is ambitious." Trevison's lips curled
scornfully. First, Hester Keyes h