e, but I
wouldn't let her. She's good and innocent; she never imagined we were
not as strong as she, and it's killing her. There's no question what
will happen to me; everything is against me, and I'll be convicted.

"No one understands--she can't herself; but she feels responsible for
one of us, already, and will feel the same for me when it's over.
Anyway, I'd never see her again. I feel different toward her now, and
always would. I'd never live over again days like I have in the past
year: days I hated a friend I'd known all my life--because we both
loved the same woman. If the Almighty sent love of woman into the
world to be bought at the price I paid, it's wrong, and He's made a
mistake. It's contrary to Nature, because Nature is kind.

"Last summer I'd sit out of doors at night and watch the stars come
out thick, like old friends, till I'd catch the mood and be content.
The wind would blow up from the south, softly, like some one fanning
me, and the frogs and crickets would sing even and sleepy, and I'd
think of her and be as nearly happy as it was possible for me to be.

"Then, somehow, he'd drift into the picture, and it grated. I'd wonder
why this love of woman, which ought to make one feel the best of
everything there is in life; which ought to make one kinder and
tenderer to every one, should make me hate him, my best friend. The
night would be spoiled, and from then on the crickets would sing out
of tune. I'd go to bed, where, instead of sleeping, I would try to
find out, and couldn't.

"And at last, that night--and the end! Oh, it's horrible, horrible! I
wish to God they'd try me quick, and end it. It makes me hate that
girl to think she's the cause. And that makes me hate myself, for I
know she's innocent. Oh, it's tangled--tangled--"

Of the trial which followed, the world knows. How Burr pleaded his own
case, and of the brilliancy of the pleading, history makes record at
length. 'T was said long before, when the name of Burr was proud on
the Nation's tongue--years before that fatal morning on Weekawken
Heights--that no judge could decide against him. Though reviled by
half the nation, it would seem it were yet true.

Another trial followed; but of this history is silent, though Aaron
Burr pleaded this case as well. It was a trial for manslaughter, and
every circumstance, even the prisoner's word, declared guilt. To show
that a person may be guilty in act, and at the same time, in reality,
innocent