opportunity."

Dick's hands clenched at his sides, but still he said nothing.

"She loved you," the squire said again. "Lady Jo--or no Lady Jo--she
loved you. It wasn't make-believe. She was fairly caught--against her
will possibly--but still caught. She's run away from you now--run away
with another man--because she couldn't stay and face you. Is that
convincing proof, do you think, that she has ceased to love you? It
wouldn't convince me."

Dick's clenched hands were beating impotently against his sides.
"I--can't say, sir," he said, between his set teeth.

The squire moved impulsively, laid a hand on his shoulder. "Dick, I've
seen a good deal--suffered a good deal--in my time; enough to know the
real thing when I see it. She's loved you as long as she's known you,
and it's been the same with you. You're not going to deny that? You
can't deny it!"

Dick made a quick gesture of protest. For a moment the tortured soul
of the man looked out of his eyes. "Does that make it any better?" he
said harshly.

"In my opinion, yes." Fielding spoke with decision. "She may have taken
refuge with Saltash, but that doesn't prove anything--except that the
poor girl had no one else to turn to. You had failed her--or anyhow you
didn't offer to stand by."

"I couldn't!" The words came jerkily, as if wrung from him by main
force. "For one thing--the men were out of hand, and it was as much as
I could do to hold them. She told them, I tell you--stood up and told
them straight out--who she was. And they loathe the whole crowd. It
was madness."

"Pretty sublime madness!" commented the squire. "And then Saltash took
her away. Was that it?"

"Yes." Dick spoke with intense bitterness. "It was the chance he was
waiting for. Of course he seized it. Any blackguard would."

"But you thought she might have come here?" pursued the squire.

"I thought it possible, yes. I told Yardley it was so. He of course
sneered at the bare idea. I nearly choked him for it. But I might have
known he was right. She wouldn't risk--my following her. She wanted to
be--free."

"Why? Is she afraid of you then?" Fielding's voice was stern.

Dick threw up his head with the action of a goaded animal. "Yes."

"Then you've given her some reason?"

"Yes. I have given her reason!" Fiercely he flung the words. "You want to
know--you shall know! This evening she found out something about me which
even you don't know yet--something that made her hate me. I was