not understand how you can be so kind to me. After what I said, and
the way I have treated you; it is wonderful!"

I was obliged to wait another moment before I could reply. I clutched
the wheel tighter than ever.

"The wonderful part of it all," I said, earnestly, "is that you should
even speak to me, after my treatment of you here, to-night. I was a
brute. I ordered you about as if--"

"Hush! Don't! please don't. Think of what I said to you! Will you
forgive me? I have been so ungrateful. You saved my life over and over
again and I--I--"

"Stop! Don't do that! If you do I shall--Miss Colton, please--"

She choked back the sob. "Tell me," she said, a moment later, this time
looking me directly in the face, "why did you sell my father that land?"

It was my turn to avoid her look. I did not answer.

"I know it was not because of the money--the price, I mean. Father told
me that you refused the five thousand he offered and would accept only
a part of it; thirty-five hundred, I think he said. I should have known
that the price had nothing to do with it, even if he had not told me.
But why did you sell it?"

I would have given all I had, or ever expected to have, in this world,
to tell her the truth. For the moment I almost hated George Taylor.

"Oh, I thought I might as well, give in then as later," I answered, with
a shrug. "It was no use fighting the inevitable."

"That was not it. I know it was not. If it had been you would have taken
the five thousand. And I know, too, that you meant what you said when
you told me you never would sell. I have known it all the time. I know
you were telling me the truth."

I was astonished. "You do?" I cried. "Why, you said--"

"Don't! I know what I said, and I am so ashamed. I did not mean it,
really. For a moment, there in the library, when Father first told me, I
thought perhaps you--but I did not really think it. And when he told me
the price, I KNEW. Won't you tell me why you sold?"

"I can't. I wish I could."

"I believe I can guess."

I started. "You can GUESS?" I repeated.

"Yes. I think you wanted the money for some purpose, some need which
you had not foreseen. And I do not believe it was for yourself at all. I
think it was for some one else. Wasn't that it?"

I could not reply. I tried to, tried to utter a prompt denial, but the
words would not come. Her "guess" was so close to the truth that I could
only stammer and hesitate.

"It was," she said. "I tho