ed the pink-and-white laurel blossoms, which
fell in a shower about her when she brushed through them. She passed
quite near him, walking slowly, and stopped for a moment to rest against
a pillar of the porch. She was very pale; her face was traced deep with
suffering, and she was, as old Gabe said, much changed. Then she went
on toward the garden, stepping with an effort over the low fence, and
leaned as if weak and tired against the apple-tree, the boughs of which
shaded the two graves at her feet. For a few moments she stood there,
listless, and Rome watched her with hungry eyes, at a loss what to do.
She moved presently, and walked quite around the graves without looking
at them; then came back past him, and, seating herself in the porch,
turned her face to the river. The sun lighted her hair, and in the
sunken, upturned eyes Rome saw the shimmer of tears.

"Marthy!" He couldn't help it--the thick, low cry broke like a groan
from his lips, and the girl was on her feet, facing him. She did not
know the voice, nor the shaggy, half-wild figure in the shade of the
laurel; and she started back as if to run; but seeing that the man did
not mean to harm her, she stopped, looking for a moment with wonder and
even with quick pity at the hunted face with its white appeal. Then a
sudden spasm caught her throat, and left her body rigid, her hands shut,
and her eyes dry and hard--she knew him. A slow pallor drove the flush of
surprise from her face, and her lips moved once, but there was not even
a whisper from them. Rome raised one hand before his face, as though to
ward off something. "Don't look at me that way, Marthy--my God, don't! I
didn't kill him. I sw'ar it! I give him a chance fer his life. I know,
I know--Steve says he didn't. Thar was only us two. Hit looks ag'in'
me; but I hain't killed one nur t'other. I let 'em both go. Y'u don't
believe me?" He went swiftly toward her, his gun outstretched. "Hyeh,
gal! I heerd ye swore ag' in' me out thar in the gyarden--'lowin' that
you was goin' to hunt me down yerself if the soldiers didn't. Hyeh's yer
chance!"

The girl shrank away from him, too startled to take the weapon; and he
leaned it against her, and stood away, with his hands behind him.

"Kill me ef ye think I'm a-lyin' to ye," he said. "Y'u kin git even with
me now. But I want to tell ye fust"--the girl had caught the muzzle of
the gun convulsively, and was bending over it, her eyes burning, her
face inscrutable--