hich surprised himself.

"No, no; it can never be!" she said tremulously. Her heart was in a
turmoil, her hands trembled with excitement. Ah, it was hard for her to
put away from her the brilliant vista which had opened there before her
startled eyes! But she was sure that she must do it; that if she loved
this man she must forswear him for his own dear sake. What right had
she, a mountain-girl, to come down there to the bluegrass to shame him
in the face of friends and foes by her ignorance and awkwardness? Her
heart yearned toward him with a warmth and fervor which she had not
known as possible to human longings, but--no, no, for his sake she must
give him up, as, for his sake, she had made the long, desperate journey
from the mountains to save him from Joe Lorey's bullet, as, for his
sake, shrinking and dismayed, conscious that in doing it she might very
well be sacrificing his respect for her, she had donned the blouse and
breeches of a jockey, yesterday, to ride his mare to victory when none
other had been there to save the day for him. That had been a sacrifice
almost beyond the power of words to tell--a sacrifice of modesty; now
came an even greater one, but one which, none the less, must certainly
be made. "No, no," said she again, "it can never, never be!"

"But I want you--just as you are! What do I care for the world, without
you, or for what it says, so long as you are mine?"

A flood of bitterness rushed to her heart. Ah, why, why, had fate made
it so necessary that, to save him, she must do what, yesterday, she had
been forced to do!

"You're thinkin' of my ignorance, an' such," she said, with sad eyes
bent upon the gifts which, now, although she looked at them, she did not
see and had forgotten. "But there's more nor that as stands between us,
Mr. Frank."

"You mean you don't love me?"

"No, no; oh, what air th' use o' denyin' it? I love you! It's that--it's
that that drives me from you, an' that breaks--my--heart!"

He went close to her and tried to take her hands in his. "Madge, dear,"
he said softly, "I want you to listen to me. I tell you I shall not let
any foolish pride or any fears for the future stand in the way of our
happiness. When I thought, a moment ago, that I might lose you forever,
I saw what my life would be without you; and, now that I know you love
me, nothing shall come between us. Madge, dear heart, I want you to put
your hand in mine."

She drew away, but it was plain that s