ad to play so many parts. And love did lie in the chance
of meeting, too. I loved you when first I laid eyes on you, when I lay
feigning sleep in that chair by the hearth, when Lord Farquhart
entertained his guests, when you took my part and begged that I might
be let to sleep, when you vouched for my conscience. And I think my
conscience should have wakened then, but it did not. And I loved you
even more that same night when we rode through the moonlit roads
together, when you vowed to win Judith's love in spite of Judith's
hate. See, I've the golden crown you threw to Johan to bind your
bargain with him." She drew from her bosom the golden piece of money
strung on a slender chain.

Her words had poured forth so tumultuously that Lindley had found no
chance to interrupt. Now he said, almost mechanically, the first words
that had occurred to him.

"You were the lad asleep in the chair that night?" He was holding her
close, as though she might escape him.

"Ye-es," she answered, faintly, "and--and, oh, Cecil, shall I tell you
all? I was Johan all the time, you know. You only saw the real Johan
twice; once that night at the edge of our woods, when he told you that
I had gone to London, and--and once on the day of the trial, when you
saw him asleep at the end of the lane. And--and--of course you know
that I disguised myself as the Lady Barbara that night in hopes of
gaining a word with Lord Farquhart. I did that well, did I not,
Cecil?" There was a touch of bravado in the voice for a second, but it
quickly grew tremulous once more. "'Tis harder to be a woman than a
man, I think, harder to play a woman's part than a man's. And--well, I
was the woman in the court who stopped Lord Grimsby's sentence. 'Twas
Lady Barbara's gown that she had ready for her wedding journey with
Lord Farquhart. It was a beautiful gown, did you not think so?" Again
the bravado quivered in and out of her voice. "I ruined it outright,
for Johan and I shoved it, gown and hat and all, under Star's saddle
cloth, and I rode on it all the way from London to Ogilvie's woods,
with a king's guard mounted behind for part of the way. I've played
all those parts, Cecil, and it's been a wearying, worrisome thing,
part of the time, with quick work and rapid changes, but it's all over
now. I've learned my lesson and I've done with mumming forever."

"And those are all the parts you've played?" Lindley's question was
almost careless, for he was tasting again the