ted. Now my conscience is clear. Take me where you will."

In that moment his heart was revealed to him. In the stress of new
emotions he understood himself at last. He understood that the love
which mates, which sweeps away all calculation, which welds, trusts, and
never pauses to analyze or compute, is love that disdains mere
admiration of intellect or lure of beauty.

His quiet nature had depths. They had never been stirred till then. The
child-love had been budding there ready for blossom. It had been fed by
faith and ripened by association. Passion now brought it to fruition.
Madeleine Presson had appealed only to one side of him. This girl
rounded out the whole philosophy of love. She was not a divinity. His
nature did not crave divinity. In his strength, sincerity,
ingenuousness, his man's soul, primitive as the free woods, required the
mate--one to be cherished and protected. And so, now, when all his soul
was stirred, this girl, so bitterly in need of protection--the girl whom
the years had endeared to him--came into his heart to reign there.

Words, emotion choked him. But he could not wait, then. She saw
something in his eyes she had never seen there till that moment. But
before she could understand he carried her along with him.

"Come! I can't wait!" he cried.

When he flung open the door of the committee-room the men in it were
standing in silence. Presson had picked up the "Thornton Bill" and was
reading it, scowling. Whatever Linton had said, it was plain that the
father of Madeleine Presson had just found something which diverted his
attention from family matters.

Harlan shut the door behind. He locked it. He stepped away from the
girl, leaving her standing there. She was a picture to confute slander.

The chairman gazed at her in astonishment. He had not expected such
prompt incarnation of the topic.

"I know what foul lies have just been uttered in this room by that
fellow!" Harlan leaned forward and drove an accusatory finger at Linton.
"Now here stands the woman you have insulted. Look at her, you lying
hound! There's only one thing you can do! Acknowledge yourself a liar
and apologize!"

Linton did not speak. He raised his eyebrows; it was unspoken comment on
the peculiar actions of this young savage from the woods.

"Presson, get out of here and bring help," muttered the Duke. "Hell is
going to break loose!"

The chairman slipped the document into his pocket and tiptoed around the
si