open doorway of the car.

The dust of the battle had been removed. An admiring barber had worked
carefully over him; a doctor had mended his arm. Except for a noticeable
thinness of the face, and a certain drawn expression of the eyes, he was
the same Trevison who had spoken so frankly to her one day out on the
plains when he had taken her into his confidence. In the look that he gave
her now was the same frankness, clouded a little, she thought, by some
emotion--which she could not fathom.

"I have come to apologize," he said; "for various unjust thoughts with
which I have been obsessed." Before she could reply he had taken two or
three swift steps and was standing over her, and was speaking again, his
voice vibrant and regretful: "I ought to have known better than to
think--what I did--of you. I have no excuses to make, except that I was
insane with a fear that my ten years of labor and lonesomeness were to be
wasted. I have just had a talk with Hester Harvey, and she has shown me
what a fool I have been. She--"

Rosalind got up, laughing lowly, tremulously. "I talked with Hester this
morning. And I think--"

"She told you--" he began, his voice leaping.

"Many things." She looked straight at him, her eyes glowing, but they
drooped under the heat of his. "You don't need to feel elated over
it--there were two of us." She felt that the surge of joy that ran over
her would have shown in her face had it not been for a sudden recollection
of what the Vigilantes had done that morning. That recollection paled her
cheeks and froze the smile on her lips.

He was watching her closely and saw her face harden. A shadow passed over
his own. He thought he could see the hopelessness of staying longer. "A
woman's love," he said, gloomily, "is a wonderful thing. It clings through
trouble and tragedy--never faltering." She looked at him, startled, trying
to solve the enigma of this speech. He laughed, bitterly. "That's what
makes a woman superior to mere man. Love exalts her. It makes a savage of
a man. I suppose it is 'good-bye.'" He held out a hand to her and she took
it, holding it limply, looking at him in wonderment, her heart heavy with
regret. "I wish you luck and happiness," he said. "Corrigan is a man in
spite of--of many faults. You can redeem him; you--"

"_Is_ a man!" Her hand tightened on his; he could feel her tremble.
"Why--why--I thought--Didn't they--"

"Didn't they tell you? The fools!" He laughed derisively.