as if forced. "Doon't y'u know anythin'
about--about people? ... Shore even if y'u are an Isbel y'u never were
born in Texas."

"Thank God I wasn't!" he replied. "I was born in a beautiful country
of green meadows and deep forests and white rivers, not in a barren
desert where men live dry and hard as the cactus. Where I come from
men don't live on hate. They can forgive."

"Forgive! ... Could y'u forgive a Jorth?"

"Yes, I could."

"Shore that's easy to say--with the wrongs all on your side," she
declared, bitterly.

"Ellen Jorth, the first wrong was on your side," retorted Jean, his
voice fall. "Your father stole my father's sweetheart--by lies, by
slander, by dishonor, by makin' terrible love to her in his absence."

"It's a lie," cried Ellen, passionately.

"It is not," he declared, solemnly.

"Jean Isbel, I say y'u lie!"

"No! I say you've been lied to," he thundered.

The tremendous force of his spirit seemed to fling truth at Ellen. It
weakened her.

"But--mother loved dad--best."

"Yes, afterward. No wonder, poor woman! ... But it was the action of
your father and your mother that ruined all these lives. You've got to
know the truth, Ellen Jorth.... All the years of hate have borne their
fruit. God Almighty can never save us now. Blood must be spilled.
The Jorths and the Isbels can't live on the same earth.... And you've
got to know the truth because the worst of this hell falls on you and
me."

The hate that he spoke of alone upheld her.

"Never, Jean Isbel!" she cried. "I'll never know truth from y'u....
I'll never share anythin' with y'u--not even hell."

Isbel dismounted and stood before her, still holding his bridle reins.
The bay horse champed his bit and tossed his head.

"Why do you hate me so?" he asked. "I just happen to be my father's
son. I never harmed you or any of your people. I met you ... fell in
love with you in a flash--though I never knew it till after.... Why do
you hate me so terribly?"

Ellen felt a heavy, stifling pressure within her breast. "Y'u're an
Isbel.... Doon't speak of love to me."

"I didn't intend to. But your--your hate seems unnatural. And we'll
probably never meet again.... I can't help it. I love you. Love at
first sight! Jean Isbel and Ellen Jorth! Strange, isn't it? ... It
was all so strange. My meetin' you so lonely and unhappy, my seein'
you so sweet and beautiful, my thinkin' you so good in spite of--"

"Shore it was stra