"It wasn't a pretty thing to do, Nell, but I saw he had some deviltry afoot, and I got it from him--I half choked and half wheedled it from him. Fortunately he was drunk or I couldn't have got it either way. But now you know. It began, as nearly as I could gather, one night last spring when Ewing saw you leaving the house. The vain little fool guessed he'd seen you, and told him the tale about a woman who'd been harassing him because he was trying to break off an affair with her." "I remember----" "And then last night----" "Last night--ah, last night!" She laughed weakly, recalling the scene that had met Ewing's eyes, perceiving what he must have thought. "I'd have done it for you," she heard him say again, and shuddered. She recalled, too, her own later urging, "Never let him tell you anything." How pitiful she must have seemed to him, and how monstrous! She laughed again wildly, suddenly struck by the cunning of this satire on truth. Alden Teevan recalled her from the picture. "It was like him, wasn't it, Nell?--like both of them--like him to say it, and like the other to believe. But the harm can be undone. You can explain--a word or two." She stared at him in sudden consternation. It had flashed upon her that no half truth would satisfy Ewing. She knew she would be unequal to any adequate fiction; she would falter and he would see to the heart of her lie. She must let him think as he did--or blacken his dearest memory. But to Alden Teevan she only said: "Ah, yes--a word will explain--and I'm so grateful to you." She was wondering then if she were glad or sorry that he had told her. She might have lived out her time without knowing, she thought. "Of course, if you'd like me to tell him, Nell----" "No, no, Alden, thank you; but that's for me." They had not spoken Ewing's name, but his concern in the matter, the meaning of his faith in the woman, was a matter that seemed to lie open to them both. Alden Teevan had assumed it and she had made no denial. His recognition of it colored his leave-taking. "All happiness for you, Nell. The game ought to be worth playing with you--and with him. You both live so hard." He found it difficult to say as little, there was such gratitude and such misery in her eyes as they fell before his, trying to veil at least a part of what she felt. But he left her so.