hink that about yourself
now? Oh, are you better than the world? Or are you just a man, like the
rest of them? Didn't you ever know--didn't you ever kiss a woman in all
your life and know what that meant?"

He had sat, his shocked face turned toward her, too stunned for answer.
But she saw him start as though under the blow of a dagger at her last
words.

"Don't think this hasn't hurt," said she, more composedly now. "It's the
truth as far as I know it. With your power, your influence, you could
get him free--soon--very soon--perhaps. You could make us both happy.
But, so you say, that would make _you_ unhappy! I know you well enough
to know what the decision will be in a case like that, Judge Henderson!

"As for me--" she was closer to him now, utterly fearless, as a woman is
who loves and sees the object of her love threatened--"our paths part
here, now! I'm of age and my own mistress. I know my own mind, as I've
told you. I'm going to stay--I'm going to stick--do you hear? I'm going
to love him long as he lives. I'm going to _marry_ him, if it's in a
jail!"

Judge Henderson only began to wag his head now from side to side. His
face had gone ghastly.

"Why, Uncle dear"--she came over to him now--"forgive me if I've been
too outspoken--it's only because I'm so strained."

"Myself also," he groaned. "Strain? Why, yes. You don't know--you don't
know!"

Suddenly she changed once more, still the woman, still the young girl,
as yet half ignorant of life, her hands still on her heaving bosom now,
the faint flush back in her cheeks.

"He _kissed_ me, Uncle!" said she. "I don't know much, but it seems to
me if a man kisses a woman--in that way--it's _life_ for her and him!
They can't help it after that. After that, a woman's got to do just all
she can in the game of life--and he's got to do the best he knows. They
can't help it. He _kissed_ me.... And I told you I'll not desert him. It
wouldn't be right. And, right or wrong, I can't--I _can't_!"

Panting, the tears now almost ready to drop from her moist eyes, she
stood, a beautiful picture of young womanhood, so soft, so fully fitted
for love and love's caresses; and now so wronged out of her love by
sudden fate. But in her there was no sign of weakness or of yielding.
The man who faced her felt the truth of that. His own face now was far
the more irresolute of the two--far the more agitated.

Suddenly, haggard, frowning, he rose, at a sound which he heard in the