from ambush; but even if he had, it would have been for love of her;
and if he had not, she had nevertheless been the moving cause of the
disaster. She would not willingly have done young Mr. Fetters an
injury. He had favoured her by his attentions, and, if all stories
were true, he had behaved better than Ben, in the difficulty between
them, and had suffered more. But she loved Ben, as she grew to
realise, more and more. She wanted to go and see Ben in jail but her
aunt did not think it proper. Appearances were all against Ben, and he
had not purged himself by any explanation. So Graciella sat down and
wrote him a long letter. She knew very well that the one thing that
would do him most good would be the announcement of her Aunt Laura's
engagement to Colonel French. There was no way to bring this about,
except by first securing her aunt's permission. This would make
necessary a frank confession, to which, after an effort, she nerved
herself.

"Aunt Laura," she said, at a moment when they were alone together, "I
know why Ben will not accept bail from Colonel French, and why he will
not tell his side of the quarrel between himself and Mr. Fetters. He
was foolish enough to imagine that Colonel French was coming to the
house to see me, and that I preferred the colonel to him. And, Aunt
Laura, I have a confession to make; I have done something for which I
want to beg your pardon. I listened that night, and overheard the
colonel ask you to be his wife. Please, dear Aunt Laura, forgive me,
and let me write and tell Ben--just Ben, in confidence. No one else
need know it."

Miss Laura was shocked and pained, and frankly said so, but could not
refuse the permission, on condition that Ben should be pledged to keep
her secret, which, for reasons of her own, she was not yet ready to
make public. She, too, was fond of Ben, and hoped that he might clear
himself of the accusation. So Graciella wrote the letter. She was no
more frank in it, however, on one point, than she had been with her
aunt, for she carefully avoided saying that she _had_ taken Colonel
French's attentions seriously, or built any hopes upon them, but
chided Ben for putting such a construction upon her innocent actions,
and informed him, as proof of his folly, and in the strictest
confidence, that Colonel French was engaged to her Aunt Laura. She
expressed her sorrow for his predicament, her profound belief in his
innocence, and her unhesitating conviction that he