e and reddening the bosom of the placid stream. When he had
finished his task and taken his seat, there fell a silence and
constraint upon the man and woman, brought through so many strange and
wayward paths, through lives so widely differing, to this companionship
in the heart of a waste and savage world. They sat opposite each other
in the ruddy light of the fire, and each, looking into the dark or
glowing hollows, saw there the same thing--the tobacco house and what
had there passed.

"I wish to believe in you," said Patricia at last, lifting appealing
eyes to the opposite face. "But how can I? You lied to me!"

Landless raised his head proudly. "Madam, will you listen to me--to my
defense if you will? You are a Royalist: I am a Commonwealth man. Can
you not see, that as ten years ago, in the estimation of you and yours,
it was all that was just and heroic for a Cavalier to plot the downfall
of the Government which then was, both here and at home, so they of the
Commonwealth saw no disgrace in laboring for their cause, a cause as
real and as high and as holy to them, madam, as was that of the Stuart
and the Church to the Cavalier.... And will not the slave fight for his
liberty? Is it of choice, do you think, that men lie rotting in prison,
in the noisome holds of ships, are bought and sold like oxen, are
chained to the oar, to the tobacco field, are herded with the refuse of
the earth, are obedient to the finger, to the whip? We--they who are
known as Oliverians, and they who are felons, and I who am, if you
choose, of both parties, were haled here with ropes. What allegiance did
we owe to them who had cast us out, or to them who bought us as they buy
dumb beasts? As God lives, none! We were no longer regarded as men, we
were chattels, animals, slaves, caged, and chained. And as the caged
beast will break his bars if he can, so we strove to break ours. You
have been a captive, madam. Is not freedom sweet to you? We also longed
for it. We staked our lives upon the throw--and lost. That dream is
over,--let it go!... There is honor among rebels, madam, as among
thieves. That morning after the storm, I had the choice of lying to you
or of becoming a traitor indeed.... But as to what I had before asked
you to believe, that was the truth, is the truth. I know that in your
eyes I am still the rebel to the King, well deserving the doom which
awaits me, but if, after what I say to you, by the faith of a gentleman,
before th