God knows."

Her eyes were moist and her lips trembled. The governor crossed to where
she sat and took her hand.

"Dear Miss Chris," he said, "women like you make men heroes." And he
added quickly, "The pardon is being made out. When it is ready I will
sign it."

She looked at him an instant in silence; then she rose heavily to her
feet, leaning upon his arm. "You're a great man, Nick Burr," she said
softly.

An hour later Nicholas Burr looked calmly down upon his signature that
meant freedom for Bernard Battle. He had won the victory of his life,
and he was feeling with a glow of self-appreciation that he had done a
generous thing.

VIII

Miss Chris, in her hired carriage, rolled leisurely into Franklin
Street, where pretty women in visiting gowns were going in and out of
doorways. She leaned out and bowed smilingly several times, but she was
not thinking of the gracefully dressed callers or of the houses into
which they went. When Emma Carr threw her a kiss from Galt's porch, she
responded amiably; but she was as blind to the affectionate gesture as
to the striking beauty of the girl in her winter furs.

Up the quiet street the leafless trees made a gray vista that melted
into transparent mist. The sunshine stretched in pale gold bars from
sidewalk to sidewalk, and overhead the sky was of a rare Italian blue.
But for the frost in the air and the naked boughs, it might have been a
day in April.

Presently the carriage turned into Main Street, halting abruptly while a
trolley car shot past. "Please be very careful," called Miss Chris
nervously, gathering herself together as they stopped before a big gray
house that faced a gray church on the opposite corner. A flight of stone
steps ran from the doorway to a short tesselated entrance leading to the
street, where two scraggy poplars still held aloft the withered
skeletons of last year's tulips. The Webbs had taken the house because
the box bushes in the yard reminded Eugenia of Battle Hall, while
Dudley declared it to be the best breathing space he could get for the
money.

"We done git back, Mistis," announced the negro driver, descending from
his perch, and at the same instant the door of the house flew open and
Eugenia ran out, bareheaded, followed by Dudley.

"I saw you from the window, Aunt Chris," she cried, "and now I want to
know the meaning of this mystery. Dudley suspects you of having a lover,
but I am positive that you've stolen a march