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"Bles," she said primly, "have you absolutely no shame?"

He braced hi to marry her; it is no crime" Then he noted the expression on her face, and paused

She stepped back, scandalized

"Can it be, Bles Alwyn," she said, "that you don't know the sort of girl she is?"

He raised his hands and warded off her words, duhtened at the havoc she saw The heavens flamed scarlet in his eyes and he screamed

"It's a lie! It's a damned lie!" He wheeled about and tore into the swamp

"It's a damned lie!" he shouted to the trees "Is it?--is it?" chirped the birds "It's a cruel falsehood!" he moaned "Is it?--is it?" whispered the devils within

It see and faltering about his were upon the breezes He unbuttoned his collar that he ed suddenly to life Slower and slower he ran, ht of that first red night and the yelling and singing and wild dancing; he thought of Cresswell's bitter words; he thought of Zora telling how she stayed out nights; he thought of the little bower that he had built her in the cotton field A wild fear struggled with his anger, but he kept repeating, "No, no," and then, "At any rate, she will tell me the truth" She had never lied to him; she would not dare; he clenched his hands, murder in his heart

Slowly and more slowly he ran He knehere she here she e hands held hied his feet His heart said: "On! quick! She will tell the truth, and all will be well" His ht aside, and crashed through the barrier

She was standing still and listening, with a huge basket of the piled froth of the field upon her head One long brown ars, balanced the cotton; the other, poised, balanced the sli, her lips apart, her boso at the well-known step

He burst into her vieith the fury of a beast, rending the wood away and tra until he saw her She looked at hirayish-brown, both hands unconsciously out-stretched, and the cotton swaying, while deep down in her eyes, direw He paused a edly, drunkenly, with torn clothes, flying collar, and red eyes Then he paused again, still beyond ar at her with fear-struck eyes The cotton on her head shivered and dropped in a pure mass of white and silvery snow about her limbs Her hands fell liled with his voice but it grated and ca throat