ly, "you may strike me without
fear. One crime more or less on your conscience will soon cease to
trouble you."

"Gilda!" he cried with sudden passionate reproach.

At this involuntary cry--in which the expression of latent affection for
her struggled with that of his rage and of his burning anxiety--all her
own tender feelings for him, her womanliness, her motherly instincts
were re-awakened in an instant. They had only been dormant for awhile,
because of her horror of what she had heard. And that horror of a
monstrous deed, that sense of shame that he--her brother--should be so
ready to acquiesce in a crime had momentarily silenced the call of
sisterly love. But this love once re-awakened was strong enough to do
battle in her heart on his behalf: the tense rigidity of her attitude
relaxed, her mouth softened, her eyes filled with tears. The next moment
she had turned fully to him and was looking pleadingly into his face.

"Little brother," she murmured gently, "tell me that it is not true.
That it was all a hideous dream."

He looked down on her for a moment. It pleased him to think that her
affection for him was still there, that at any rate his personal safety
might prove a potent argument against the slightest thought of
indiscretion on her part. She tried to read his thoughts, but everything
was dark around them both, the outline of his brow and mouth alone stood
clearly out from the gloom: the expression of his eyes she could not
fathom. But womanlike she was ready to believe that he would relent. It
is so difficult for a woman to imagine that one whom she loves is really
prone to evil. She loved this brother dearly, and did not grasp the fact
that he had reached a point in his life when a woman's pleading had not
the power to turn him from his purpose. She did not know how deeply he
had plunged into the slough of conspiracy, and that the excitement of it
had fired his blood to the exclusion of righteousness and of loyalty.
She hoped--in the simplicity of her heart--that he was only misled, that
evil counsels had only temporarily prevailed. Like a true woman she
still saw the child in this brother who had grown to manhood by her
side.

Therefore she appealed and she pleaded, she murmured tender words and
made fond suggestions, all the while that his heart was hard to
everything except to the one purpose which she was trying to thwart.

Not unkindly but quite firmly he detached her clinging arms from round