"There isn't anything else for you to do." "I want to--to stay here." "Do you think Zeke'd harbor you--when you're about certain to up and disgrace us as your mother did?" "I haven't done anything wrong," said the girl dully. "Don't you dare lie about that!" "I've seen Ruth do the same with Artie Sinclair--and all the girls with different boys." "You miserable girl!" cried her uncle. "I never heard it was so dreadful to let a boy kiss you." "Don't pretend to be innocent. You know the difference between that and what you did!" Susan realized that when she had kissed Sam she had really loved him. Perhaps that was the fatal difference. And her mother--the sin there had been that she really loved while the man hadn't. Yes, it must be so. Ruth's explanation of these mysteries had been different; but then Ruth had also admitted that she knew little about the matter--and Susan most doubted the part that Ruth had assured her was certainly true. "I didn't know," said Susan to her uncle. "Nobody ever told me. I thought we were engaged." "A good woman don't need to be told," retorted Warham. "But I'm not going to argue with you. You've got to marry." "I couldn't do that," said the girl. "No, I couldn't." "You'll either take him or you go back to Sutherland and I'll have you locked up in the jail till you can be sent to the House of Correction. You can take your choice." Susan sat looking at her slim brown hands and interlacing her long fingers. The jail! The House of Correction was dreadful enough, for though she had never seen it she had heard what it was for, what kind of boys and girls lived there. But the jail--she had seen the jail, back behind the courthouse, with its air of mystery and of horror. Not Hell itself seemed such a frightful thing as that jail. "Well--which do you choose?" said her uncle in a sharp voice. The girl shivered. "I don't care what happens to me," she said, and her voice was dull and sullen and hard. "And it doesn't much matter," sneered Warham. Every time he looked at her his anger flamed again at the outrage to his love, his trust, his honor, and the impending danger of more illegitimacy. "Marrying Jeb will give you a chance to reform and be a good woman. He understands--so you needn't be afraid of what he'll find out." "I don't care what happens to me," the girl repeated in the same monotonous voice. Warham rose. "I'll send your Aunt Sallie," said he. "And when I call, she'll bring you down."