o repay a
little," she said.

"You owe me nothing; the debt is all mine."

"Captain Prescott, I hope you do not think I have been unwomanly," she
said.

"Unwomanly? Why should I think it?"

"Because I went to Richmond alone, though I did so really because I had
nowhere else to go. You believe me a spy, and you think for that reason
I was trying to escape from Richmond!"

She stopped and looked at Prescott, and when she met his answering gaze
the flush in her cheeks deepened.

"Ah, I was right; you do think me a spy!" she exclaimed with passionate
earnestness, "and God knows I might have been one! Some such thought was
in my mind when I went to Miss Grayson's in Richmond. That day in the
President's office, when the people were at the reception I was sorely
tempted, but I turned away. I went into that room with the full
intention of being a spy. I admit it. Morally, I suppose that I was one
until that moment, but when the opportunity came I could not do it. The
temptation would come again, I knew, and it was one reason why I wished
to leave Richmond, though my first attempt was made because I feared
you--I did not know you then. I do not like the name of spy and I do not
want to be one. But there were others, and far stronger reasons. A
powerful man knew of my presence in that office on that day; he could
have proved me guilty even though innocent, and he could have involved
with my punishment the destruction of others. There was Miss
Grayson--how could I bring ruin upon her head! And--and----"

She stopped and the brilliant colour suffused her face.

"You used the word 'others,'" said Prescott. "You mean that so long as
you were in Richmond my ruin was possible because I helped you?"

She did not reply, but the vivid colour remained in her face.

"It is nothing to me," said Prescott, "whether you were or were not a
spy, or whether you were tempted to be one. My conscience does not
reproach me because I helped you, but I think that it would give me
grievous hurt had I not done so. I am not fitted to be the judge of
anybody, Miss Catherwood, least of all of you. It would never occur to
me to think you unwomanly."

"You see that I value your good opinion, Captain Prescott," she said,
smiling slightly.

"It is the only thing that makes my opinion of any worth."

Talbot approached at that moment. Prescott introduced him with the
courtesy of the time, not qualified at all by their present
circumstances, and h