oman for whose death
your miserable lover is being tried? Had you no consideration, no pity,
if not for yourself, ruined by this day's work, for me, who have
sacrificed every thing, done every thing the most devoted man or lawyer
could do to save this fellow and win you for my wife?"

"Sir," said she, meeting the burning anger of his look with the coldness
of a set despair, as if in the doubt awakened by his changed demeanor
she sought to probe his mind for its hidden secret, "I did what any
other woman would have done in my place. When we are pushed to the wall
we tell the truth."

"The truth!" Was that his laugh that rang startlingly through the room?
"The truth! You told the truth! Imogene, Imogene, is any such farce
necessary with me?"

Her lips, which had opened, closed again, and she did not answer for a
moment; then she asked:

"How do you know that what I said was not the truth?"

"How do I know?" He paused as if to get his breath. "How do I know?" he
repeated, calling up all his self-control to sustain her gaze unmoved.
"Do you think I have lost my reason, Imogene, that you put me such a
question as that? How do I know you are innocent? Recall your own words
and acts since the day we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, and tell me how
it would be possible for me to think any thing else of you?"

But her purpose did not relax, neither did she falter as she returned:

"Mr. Orcutt, will you tell me what has ever been said by me or what you
have ever known me to do that would make it certain I did not commit
this crime myself?"

His indignation was too much for his courtesy.

"Imogene," he commanded, "be silent! I will not listen to any further
arguments of this sort. Isn't it enough that you have destroyed my
happiness, that you should seek to sport with my good-sense? I say you
are innocent as a babe unborn, not only of the crime itself but of any
complicity in it. Every word you have spoken, every action you have
taken, since the day of Mrs. Clemmens' death, proves you to be the
victim of a fixed conviction totally at war with the statement you were
pleased to make to-day. Only your belief in the guilt of another and
your--your----"

He stopped, choked. The thought of his rival maddened him.

She immediately seized the opportunity to say:

"Mr. Orcutt, I cannot argue about what I have done. It is over and
cannot be remedied. It is true I have destroyed myself, but this is no
time to think of that. All I