hat the effect would be if he
ever learned the truth, and was half inclined to speak and end her misery,
trusting to his generous instincts, which were so manifest to her when he
was absent; but when he came to her and spoke, there was something in his
voice and manner which she would not own, even to herself, as being a
contradiction to her faith, and yet which chilled her and made her seek
a refuge in the haven of the cowardly--procrastination.

Now another element had come into her life--her liking for Ailleen. The
simple courage the girl had displayed in the trial which had fallen upon
her, the unselfish putting aside of her own grief to soothe and make
happier the life of her blind friend, all weighed against the uttering
of the story which would destroy the overpowering demon of terror to
which she was subjected; for the uttering of the story would shatter, at
one word, she thought, the confidence, the affection, and the kindliness
of Ailleen.

Of the threat the man had made she thought nothing; he had made similar
threats too often before, until she felt he only used them to goad her
into deeper misery. He was merciless and, to all save himself,
treacherous--how much she dared not think--but she would not believe
that his threat to take her boy from her was genuine. All she could
think of, as she sat huddled up on the ground, was to cling to the
belief that her boy would not be taken away, and that somehow the mental
torture the man's existence caused her, and the physical pain he never
hesitated to inflict, might some day cease.

While she was under the protecting shade of the trees another little
drama was being enacted on the verandah of the station-house.

Scarcely had Ailleen, obedient to the elder woman's wish, reached it,
when she saw a horseman come through the gate from beside which she had
first seen Barellan. He rode rapidly towards the house, and as he
approached her heart gave a leap, for she recognized first the grey
horse, and then its rider. He saw her as she came up, and waved his
hand. Springing from the saddle a few moments later, he fastened the
bridle round the hand-rail which served as the blind woman's guide to
and from the house and the trees, and hastened to where Ailleen was
standing at the top of the steps.

"I only heard last night, Ailleen," he said simply, as he came and took
both her hands in his. "I--I don't know what to say; but you know, don't
you?"

She nodded, not trusti