wn
such an ordeal. It seemed as if I could not answer, and as I stood
staring back at her a smile was forced to her lips.

"I will pay you one tribute, my friend," she said; "you are honest."

But even as she spoke I saw her sway, and though I could not be sure it
were not a dizziness in me, I caught her. I shall always marvel at the
courage there was in her, for she straightened and drew away from me
a little proudly, albeit gently, and sat down on the knee of the oak,
looking across the bayou towards the mist of the swamp. There was the
infinite calmness of resignation in her next speech.

"Tell me about him," she said.

She was changed indeed. Were it not so I should have heard of her own
sufferings, of her poor, hunted life from place to place, of countless
nights made sleepless by the past. Pride indeed was left, but the fire
had burned away the last vestige of selfishness.

I sat down beside her, knowing full well that I should be judged by
what I said. She listened, motionless, though something of what that
narrative cost her I knew by the current of sympathy that ran now
between us. Unmarked, the day faded, a new light was spread over the
waters, the mist was spangled with silver points, the Spanish moss took
on the whiteness of lace against the black forest swamp, and on the
yellow face of the moon the star-shaped leaves of a gum were printed.

At length I paused. She neither spoke, nor moved--save for the rising
and falling of her shoulders. The hardest thing I had to say I saved for
the last, and I was near lacking the courage to continue.

"There is Mademoiselle Antoinette--" I began, and stopped,--she turned
on me so quickly and laid a hand on mine.

"Nick loves her!" she cried.

"You know it!" I exclaimed, wondering.

"Ah, David," she answered brokenly, "I foresaw it from the first. I,
too, love the girl. No human being has ever given me such care and such
affection. She--she is all that I have left. Must I give her up? Have I
not paid the price of my sins?"

I did not answer, knowing that she saw the full cruelty of the
predicament. What happiness remained to her now of a battered life stood
squarely in the way of her son's happiness. That was the issue, and no
advice or aid of mine could change it. There was another silence that
seemed to me an eternity as I watched, a helpless witness, the struggle
going on within her. At last she got to her feet, her face turned to the
shadow.

"I will g