"I tell you this because I can say truthfully that I know him to be faithful in friendship and incapable of treachery." Friedrich turned again with tightened lips to his contemplation of the meadow. "We heard of your being summoned to court and for what purpose." Mrs. Carroll stopped, for a grayness settled over the young man's face, and the eyes that he turned upon hers were filled with horror. "You had forgotten?" "Yes, I had forgotten." All the pride went out of him, as the fading of the sun's flush leaves the evening clouds without illumination and dull. "I had for-rgotten, but now I r-remember. It comes back to me. Yes, now I r-remember all--all." He turned away his face both from her and from the field below, and rested his cheek on his hand. Mrs. Carroll noticed the thinness of his wrist, and her heart misgave her. "Shall I go on?" "If it please you." "Bob Morgan went into Asheville to follow your career in behalf of all your friends here." Von Rittenheim's head fell lower. "He was in the court-room when you were----" The old lady hesitated and watched von Rittenheim sharply. She was doubtful of his strength after all. "When I was--yes, continue, please," he said, with muffled voice. "When you were sentenced." She hastened on, pretending not to hear the groan that followed her revelation. "He galloped out here at once as fast as he could, and told us about it--his father and me. He feared an illness for you then--you looked not yourself, he said. We decided that it was best for you to come here to Oakwood. We could not bear to think of your going to the hospital." Friedrich felt vaguely across the table for the plump little hand of his hostess, and pressed it blindly. "They drove into town that same afternoon, Dr. Morgan in our carriage, and Bob in his buggy, and found you in the--found you very ill." "Found me where?" "You were delirious even then." "Found me where?" Friedrich pushed aside the cups and placed both elbows on the table. He seemed to Mrs. Carroll to have grown haggard since she had begun her recital. "Found me where?" he repeated for the third time. "You insist?" "It is my r-right." "They found you in--in the jail." Mrs. Carroll turned away from the wretched man before her and sobbed undisguisedly. On them fell a quiet pregnant with emotion. The hush was broken by the crash of a tea-cup upon which Friedrich's fingers had happened to fall. "Bob secured the nurses and drove one of them out in the buggy, and the Doctor and the other one brought you in the carriage." "Why did they let me go from the--jail?" "The Doctor paid your fine." Often during the preceding weeks Mrs. Carroll had thought of this conversation with von Rittenheim, and the statement that she had just made always had figured as the climax of her argument in the Doctor's behalf. Now she felt no pleasure in it. The man before her was too crushed for her to exult over. He made no comment, merely said, reflectively,--