he look she wore.

"Say--say those words again!" she gasped. "Let me hear them once more.
He thinks what?"

"That you are what you proclaimed yourself to be this day, the actual
assailant and murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. He has thought so all along,
Miss Dare, why, I do not know. Whether he saw any thing or heard any
thing in that house from which you saw him fly so abruptly, or whether
he relied solely upon the testimony of the ring, which you must remember
he never acknowledged having received back from you, I only know that
from the minute he heard of his aunt's death, his suspicions flew to
you, and that, in despite of such suggestions as I felt it judicious to
make, they have never suffered shock or been turned from their course
from that day to this. _Such_ honor," concluded Mr. Orcutt, with dry
sarcasm, "does the man you love show to the woman who has sacrificed for
his sake all that the world holds dear."

"I--I cannot believe it. You are mocking me," came inarticulately from
her lips, while she drew back, step by step, till half the room lay
between them.

"Mocking you? Miss Dare, he has shown his feelings so palpably, I have
often trembled lest the whole court should see and understand them."

"You have trembled"--she could scarcely speak, the rush of her emotion
was so great--"_you_ have trembled lest the whole court should see he
suspected me of this crime?"

"Yes."

"Then," she cried, "you must have been convinced,--Ah!" she hurriedly
interposed, with a sudden look of distrust, "you are not amusing
yourself with me, are you, Mr. Orcutt? So many traps have been laid for
me from time to time, I dare not trust the truth of my best friend.
Swear you believe Craik Mansell to have thought this of me! Swear you
have seen this dark thing lying in his soul, or I----"

"What?"

"Will confront him myself with the question, if I have to tear down the
walls of the prison to reach him. His mind I must and will know."

"Very well, then, you do. I have told you," declared Mr. Orcutt.
"Swearing would not make it any more true."

Lifting her face to heaven, she suddenly fell on her knees.

"O God!" she murmured, "help me to bear this great joy!"

"_Joy!_"

The icy tone, the fierce surprise it expressed, started her at once to
her feet.

"Yes," she murmured, "joy! Don't you see that if he thinks me guilty, he
_must_ be innocent? I am willing to perish and fall from the ranks of
good men and honorable women t