e in the thicket of stunted
trees behind the property. Presently Eperson paused, raised his head,
and spoke again:

"This will do, Mr. Trott. I really don't know what to say in beginning,
for it seems to me that a million things come up, but your mother told
me about the property you gave her--the farm and all the rest."

"Yes, yes, I know-- I hoped that she would mention it to you," John
said, out of a sympathy he didn't dream he possessed. "That was really
part of the--the understanding. She needs a comfortable home and she
could not look after it herself. She knows, and I know, that you can
manage it well, and so--"

"But--but don't you see--can't you understand?" Eperson pushed his hat
back and his great, all but bloodshot eyes gleamed piteously in the
starlight. "Don't you see that I can't be put on a rack like that and
live under it? Do you think I have no pride or manhood left? I am a
failure--worse than a beggar. I aspired for that of which I was
unworthy--your wife--and I've come to tell you something to-night which
no proud man ever in the history of the world told another. I've come to
tell you that--"

"Stop, Joel, you mustn't," John broke in, and he gently laid his hand on
the shoulder of the other. "That is a thing neither of us must ever hold
in mind for a moment. Listen to me. You and I are in the swirl of great
laws we can't understand. Of one thing we can be certain, and that is
that we love the same woman. Don't come to me to-night with the idea
that you are about to get in my debt. I'm in yours. I was a coward. I
deserted my post of duty under the first great blight that fell upon me.
I was only a poor, bewildered, stung boy, but I fled while you remained,
advised, protected, and cared for both my wife and my mother. By so
doing, and through your children, you tied the hearts of those two
beings to you forever. My mother is a transformed woman through you--my
former wife through you is a glorified mother. Don't think I am fooling
myself with romantic ideals. I know where I stand. If I were to dare
to-day to lay claim to your place, Tilly would turn upon me in disgust
and hatred. And why? Because the price to be paid would be the happiness
of the father of her children. That is a holy thing in her eyes, and I,
myself, profoundly respect it."

"My God! My God!" moaned Eperson, "you can say this--you can be all
this to a man like me?" Eperson's great eyes were filling; his rough
breast was heaving