ound it possible," said she. "But, if you please, I must go. I beg
your pardon, but my Aunt Betty is waiting with the carriage."

"Why, damn Aunt Betty!" I exclaimed. "You shall not go! See, look here!"

I pulled from my pocket the little ring which I had had with me that
night when I drove out to Elmhurst in my carriage, the one with the
single gem which I had obtained hurriedly that afternoon, having never
before that day had the right to do so. In another pocket I found the
plain gold one which should have gone with the gem ring that same
evening. My hand trembled as I held these out to her.

"I prove to you what I meant. Here! I had no time! Why, Elisabeth, I was
hurrying--I was mad!--I had a right to offer you these things. I have
still the right to ask you why you did not take them? Will you not take
them now?"

She put my hand away from her gently. "Keep them," she said, "for the
owner of that other wedding gift--the one which I received."

Now I broke out. "Good God! How can I be held to blame for the act of a
drunken friend? You know Jack Dandridge as well as I do myself. I
cautioned him--I was not responsible for his condition."

"It was not that decided me."

"You could not believe it was _I_ who sent you that accursed shoe which
belonged to another woman."

"He said it came from you. Where did _you_ get it, then?"

Now, as readily may be seen, I was obliged again to hesitate. There were
good reasons to keep my lips sealed. I flushed. The red of confusion
which came to my cheek was matched by that of indignation in her own. I
could not tell her, and she could not understand, that my work for Mr.
Calhoun with that other woman was work for America, and so as sacred and
as secret as my own love for her. Innocent, I still seemed guilty.

"So, then, you do not say? I do not ask you."

"I do not deny it."

"You do not care to tell me where you got it."

"No," said I; "I will not tell you where I got it."

"Why?"

"Because that would involve another woman."

"_Involve another woman?_ Do you think, then, that on this one day of
her life, a girl likes to think of her--her lover--as involved with any
other woman? Ah, you made me begin to think. I could not help the chill
that came on my heart. Marry you?--I could not! I never could, now."

"Yet you had decided--you had told me--it was agreed--"

"I had decided on facts as I thought they were. Other facts came before
you arrived. Sir, you do me a ve