lf and began
to explain:

"You see," she said, catching her breath bravely, "they were determined
I should marry a man I can't _endure_, and when I wouldn't they tried to
_trick_ me into it anyway. I never suspected until I got into the church
and looked around and couldn't see Bessemer anywhere; only the other one
with his evil eyes gloating over me, and then I knew! They thought they
would get me there before all that church full of people and I wouldn't
dare do anything. But when I realized it, I just dropped right down in
the aisle. I couldn't stand up, I was so frightened."

"But I don't understand," said Jane. "Were there _two_ men?"

"Oh, yes," sighed Betty, "there were two."

"Well, where was the other one, the one you _wanted_ to marry?"

"I don't know----" said Betty with a half sob in her voice. "That's just
what frightened me. You see they were my stepmother's two sons, and it
was my father's dying wish that I should marry one of them. I didn't
really _want_ to marry Bessemer, but I simply _loathed_ Herbert, the
younger one, who was so determined to marry me. I was terribly afraid
of him. He had been frightfully cruel to me when I was a child and when
he grew up he was always tormenting me; and then when he tried to make
love to me he was so repulsive that I couldn't bear to look at him. It
really made me sick to think of ever marrying him. Oh--I _couldn't_--no
matter who asked me. So Bessemer and I decided to get married to stop
the trouble. They were always nagging him, too, and I was kind of sorry
for him."

"But why should you marry anybody you didn't want to, I'd like to know!"
exclaimed Jane in horror. "This is a free country and nobody ever makes
people marry anybody they don't like any more. Why didn't you just beat
it?"

"I thought about that a good many times," said Betty, pressing her tired
eyes with her cold little fingers, "but I couldn't quite bring myself to
do it. In the first place, I didn't know where to go, nor what to do.
They never would let me learn to do anything useful, so I couldn't have
got any work; and anyhow I had a feeling that it wouldn't be possible to
get away where Herbert couldn't find me if he wanted to. He's that way.
He always gets what he wants, no matter whom it hurts. He's
_awful_--Jane--really!"

There was a pitiful note in her voice that appealed to the mother in
Jane, and she stooped over her guest and patted her comfortingly on the
shoulder:

"You poor