t--a woman! She cast her childhood off
like a disguise--I saw another man look at her and I saw her look at
him! Something was born in me then after all the slow, sombre
years--and I wanted--love! I think a madness overcame me, for, blinded
and almost beside myself--I spoke to her--that child-woman, and told
her how it was with me. She is the sort that wins your heart secrets
by a glance of her tender eyes. And then----" Then came sharp words;
disconnected and flashing like flame; but Ann Walden read on while her
brain beat and ached.

"It was I she loved. I had aroused her--she saw only one man in the
world--me!

"She lay in my arms--I kissed her.

"I took her with me on a long drive through the mountains--there was a
dying woman and my dear love carried the poor soul unto the parting of
the ways with such divine tenderness as I had never before beheld. She
sang and almost played with her until the sad creature forgot her death
pangs. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw--that dying hour was
perhaps the only joyous hour the woman ever had known--and my
sun-touched darling gave it to her!

"We were married on our way home. I wanted to speak at once, but
Queenie pleaded. She did not wish, just in her own first moment of
joy, to hurt the sister who was mother to her as well as sister. I
listened, but I realized that my child-wife was afraid! That was it.
With all her brave, splendid characteristics, Ann Walden is one to call
forth fear. I felt myself shrinking hourly from confession. She is
all judge; she can be just, but she cannot, I think, be merciful. Hers
it is to carry out the law, not sympathize with those who fall under
the law. She makes cowards of us all! She is too detached to reach
humanity, or for humanity, erring, sinning humanity, to reach her.

"The call came--I had to come to the sick and dying. I made half peace
with myself by telling Ann Walden that I could not carry out our
compact. I told her, what is the hardest thing for any man to tell a
woman--that I did not love her. I could not love her! and that it was
her sister I loved. I meant to explain everything later and confess--I
expected to be back in a day or so--but I am here still and the chances
are I must stay on for a long time, and I may lose my life; conditions
are terrible, and only once a week a doctor comes!

"She, Ann Walden, is not the hard judge alone. I must not give you a
wrong impression. When I to