have done, I ought
to pardon the girl I love for what she did before she knew me."

These were admirable intentions, but he was counting on a depth of
nature that was not his either by inheritance or cultivation. The
inflammable material was still bound up in his breast, and it needed
but one spark to fire it. What he was struggling against had come down
to him from a long line of ancestors, men who would rather have died
than brook the thought of a rival, especially in an inferior; men who
would have spurned the love of their hearts if it were stained with
falsehood under any circumstances, and when, as it was in Westerfelt's
case, the provocation was not only deceit, but ardent love for such a
man--ah, there was the rub!

The next morning he watched Bates's office from the stable till he saw
the lawyer come down the street and enter. He waited awhile longer,
for he saw Bates go out to the wood-pile and return with an armful of
wood. Presently blue smoke began to rise from the chimney, and
Westerfelt went over and rapped on the door.

"Come in!" Bates called out. Westerfelt found him with his back to the
door, sitting over the fire, a leather-bound tome in his lap.

"Hello!" he cried, seeing who it was; "pull up a seat."

Westerfelt drew a rickety chair from beneath a dusty desk and sat down.

"Did you get home all right?" he asked.

"Yes." Bates closed his book, leaving his forefinger in it for a
book-mark; he removed his foot from the side of the chimney and cleared
his throat. "Miss Harriet asked me to fetch her home early; dang it!
I believe she would a-stayed longer, but she was sorry for me."

"Sorry for you--why?"

"Because she couldn't see it my way, I reckon."

"Did she--refuse you?"

Bates threw his book on a table. "Do I look like a man that's goin' to
marry the prettiest and the best girl in the world? Westerfelt, I
didn't sleep a wink last night."

"That's bad."

"Looky' heer, don't give me any shenanigan; you knowed what she'd do
for me. You knowed mighty well."

"Me?"

"Yes, dad burn it; you know she loves you."

"What are you talking about?"

"If you don't know it you are a numskull. She intimated to me that she
loved some feller, but that she never intended to marry anybody. I'm
no fool. I know who she meant. Look here!" Bates suddenly rose to
his feet. His face was both white and red in splotches. He grasped
the back of his chair with both his hands and leaned o