The two cousins and the captain were in 'Tana's cabin. Mrs. Huzzard was determined that Miss Slocum and the captain should become acquainted, and, getting sight of the girl, who was walking alone across the level, she at once followed her, thinking that the two left behind would perhaps become more social if left entirely to themselves. And they did; that is, they talked, and the captain spoke first. "So you--you bear a grudge--don't you, Lavina?" "Well, I guess if I owed you a very heavy one, I've got a good chance to pay it off now," she remarked, grimly. He twirled his hat in a dejected way, and did not speak. "You an officer in the Union Army?" she continued, derisively. "You a pattern of what a gentleman should be; you to set up as superior to these rough-handed miners; you to act as if this Government owes you a pension! Why, how would it be with you, Alf Leek, if I'd tell this camp the truth of how you went away, engaged to me, twenty-five years ago, and never let me set eyes on you since--of how I wore black for you, thinking you were killed in the war, till I heard that you had deserted. I took off that mourning quick, I can tell you! I thought you were fighting on the wrong side; yet if you had a good reason for being there, you should have staid and fought so long as there was breath in you. And if I was to tell them here that you haven't a particle of right to wear that blue suit that looks like a uniform, and that you were no more 'captain' of anything than I am--well, I guess Lorena Jane wouldn't have much to say to you, though maybe Mr. Overton would." He grew actually pale as he listened. His fear of some one overhearing her was as great as his own mortification. "But you--you won't tell--will you, Lavina?" he said pleadingly. "I haven't done any harm! I--" "Harm! Alf Leek, you never had enough backbone to do either harm or help to any one in this world. But don't you suppose you did me harm when you spoiled me for ever trusting any other man?" "I--I would have come back, but I thought you'd be married," he said, in a feeble, hopeless way. "Likely that is now, ain't it?" she demanded. And, woman-like, now that she had reduced him to meekness and humiliation, she grew a shade less severe, as if pretty well satisfied. "I had other things to think of besides a husband." "You won't tell--will you, Lavina? I'll tell you how it all happened, some day. Then I'll leave this country." "You'll not," she contradicted. "You'll stay right here as long as I do, and I won't tell just so long as you keep from trying to make Lorena Jane believe how great you are. But at the first word of your heroic actions, or the cultured society you were always used to--" "You'll never hear of them," he said eagerly, "never. I knew you wouldn't make trouble, Lavina, for you always were such a good, kind-hearted girl." He offered his hand to her, sheepishly, and she gave it a vixenish slap.