et handkerchief clasped in her
folded hands, her veils drawn across the hushed beauty of her face. As
Gerard came up, she bent to him.

"Corrie," she breathed. "Corrie, to do this! I am proud and glad and
humbled. How could he, how could he?"

"He has more courage than I," Gerard gravely acknowledged. "I could not
have done it. A superb folly, unjust to himself and us. He might safely
have confided in his father or me and have trusted Isabel to our care."

"Allan, she had his promise to tell no one and she held him to it. She
was ill and hysterical with terrified shame; Isabel never could endure
to be found at fault even in little things. She was not bad or wicked,
but just a coward."

"She found strength enough to watch Corrie under torture week after
week," he retorted, his golden-brown eyes hardening to agate. "If I had
been killed under my car, Flavia, do you realize that Rupert would have
brought your brother face to face with the electric chair? And Corrie
would have shut his lips and endured it all. Don't ask me to pity Isabel
Rose--I've lived this year with her victim."

Trembling under the control forced on herself, Flavia slipped her hand
into his.

"I know, Allan, I know. Yet she did suffer to see his suffering. In her
letter, she says that Corrie came to her at dawn, the last morning we
were all at home, and called her out into the empty hall to beseech her
for permission to tell you. He had not been to bed that night, at all.
She never afterward forgot his desperate, worn face and that memory
finally drove her to confession. But she refused him. He did break down
then, and flashed out at her that he must and would tell you the truth,
when he left her. Of course he did not do so. Allan, she declares that
he then told you, that she knows it because you wrote to her that
evening about your accident and said you would take care of Corrie
whatever happened."

"I!"

"Your letter to me. She had been insane with dread all day, believing
Corrie would fulfil his threat to tell you his innocence, and when
Rupert came she saw only that idea confirmed. She knew of no relations
between you and me. She thought only of herself."

Gerard looked at her, having no words; presently he sat down on the edge
of the car at her feet, and they continued silent, hand in hand. Mr.
Rose had found a camp-chair in the shadow of a wall, and sat watching
the race in grim quiescence.

When the last hour of the contest was reach