aighten some simple matter.

She bore his nervous petulance with patience, for she felt that she knew
the cause of his agitation. In sheer desperation, Elijah was bent upon
making trouble, knowing that in every detail he was wrong, knowing that
even the cause of his agitation was of his own creation. The gossips of
Ysleta told him this; told him in words that he could not twist into a
defense of himself, and this increased his nervous petulance. He was
wrong, terribly wrong, and he knew it, knew that he was trying to make
wrong, right. Point after point he brought up with Helen, only to have
each explained in a way that he was compelled to admit was without
fault.

Helen was patient. She thought that she knew. Her own bitter suffering
made her understand. Her heart went out in great throbs of sympathy
toward the sorely tried man, who had done wrong and was repenting, even
as she had done wrong and was now bent upon righting it.

At last, however, after an unusually severe and wholly unwarranted
outburst, she threw down the paper which she held. Patience had ceased
to be a virtue. It was a menace, not only to herself, but to the man
toward whom it was exercised.

"There's no use going on in this way any longer, Elijah! There's no
trouble where you are bent on finding it. It's in the beginning. Let's
go back and straighten that out, then we can get somewhere."

"Well, what is it!" There was an exasperating twist in Elijah's words.

Helen passed it by.

"I've done wrong and I know it. I wanted to get ahead, and getting ahead
meant money. I couldn't get into the Las Cruces--"

"I gave you the chance," interrupted Elijah.

Helen paid no heed to the interruption.

"So I began to look around for myself. You know the rest."

"There's no use going back to that." Elijah spoke impatiently.

"Yes there is use," Helen persisted. "You have done wrong and you know
it. You're trying to square yourself by finding fault with me. It's no
use. The farther you go, the worse off you are. The long and short of it
is, you can't throw dust in your own eyes."

"I'm not trying to throw dust in my own eyes." The very vehemence of his
denial gave the lie to his words.

"You are trying to, and you can't. Nothing can blind your eyes to the
fact that you are a criminal."

Elijah's eyes were blazing through their narrowed lids.

"I won't allow even you to say such things to me."

"If you would only say them to yourself, it wouldn't