I had to do
it for your sake--I'm sorry you saw it."
"It isn't that," she said slowly. "That was very brave,
and very wonderful. It's Mr. Mallory I'm thinking of. O
Billy! How could you do it?"
The man hung his head.
"Please don't," he begged. "I'd give my life to bring him
back again, for your sake. I know now that you loved
him, and I've tried to do all I could to atone for what I did
to him; just as I tried to play white with Theriere when I
found that he loved you, and intended to be on the square
with you. He was your kind, and I hoped that by helping him
to win you fairly it might help to wipe out what I had done
to Mallory. I see that nothing ever can wipe that out. I've
got to go through life regretting it because you have taught
me what a brutal, cowardly thing I did. If it hadn't been for
you I'd always have been proud of it--but you and Theriere
taught me to look at things in a different way than I ever
had learned to before. I'm not sorry for that--I'm glad, for
if remorse is a part of my punishment I'll take it gladly and
welcome the chance to get a little of what's coming to
me. Only please don't look at me that way any more--it's
more than I can stand, from you."
It was the first time that the man ever had opened his heart
in any such whole-souled way to her, and it touched the
girl more than she would have cared to admit.
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