t me, and
my eyes fell. I so wanted Mr. Frank Morton to think well of me!

"But Molly said--" he began.

She took him up quickly.

"I know what Molly said. I was close by and heard every word. She was
trying to shield me. I told her that I could be put in jail if anybody
knew what I had done. I tempted the poor, loyal, loving little soul to
tell the first falsehood that ever soiled her tongue. It was a wicked--a
vile--a _mean_ thing in me! I loathe myself when I think of it. Oh,
Namesake!"--encircling me suddenly with her arm--"we will ask God
together to forgive us. I am the sinner--not you!"

I was wetting her sleeve with tears, shed more for her distress than for
my sin.

Mr. Frank Morton made a step toward her.

"I don't comprehend you yet--quite. You could not have imagined that you
could ever go to jail if you had stolen every horse in my stable--and
everything else I have? Don't give another thought to the matter. It was
a harmless bit of fun that hurt nobody. As to Molly's fibbing--I was the
tempter. What was the child to do? I think all the more of her for
standing between you and possible trouble."

"I tempted Molly to tell her first lie!" She waived aside the hand he
would have laid upon my head. "I shall recollect that as long as I live.
I deserve to suffer for it. And I mean to punish myself by telling you
the whole truth."

In the energy of her resolve, she, too, arose to her feet. A sort of
ague went from her head to her feet. For an instant there was not a sign
of color in her cheeks, then, a great billow of blushes beat her face
down upon her hands. If I had not been clinging to her skirt I could
hardly have got the meaning of the muffled words. Her lover had to bend
his head to catch them.

"_I had on a suit of Burwell's clothes!_"

She threw up her head so abruptly that her face almost touched his
before he could start back.

"_Now_"--she flung out passionately--"you will despise me! And you ought
to!"

Her rush toward the door was intercepted by his quicker action. He
seized both of her hands and would not let her pass.

"On the contrary, I never respected you before as I do this moment. You
shall believe this, Molly Belle!"

Not a symptom of a "Miss"! And he the most punctilious of men in
everything pertaining to polite address and chivalric reverence for
women! His eyes had strange flashes in them when he turned to me. He was
grave, but with a gravity that overlaid smiles. His vo