"You--you two women--" gasped Judge Henderson--"do you know what you're doing here? Do you think I don't suffer, too?" Then Anne saw that every accusation Aurora Lane had made was true and more than true. "About that trial yesterday"--he turned to Aurora--"I _did_ have some sort of superstitious feeling--I own that--I couldn't account for it--I couldn't explain it. But you had assured me that your--our--er--the child--had died in infancy. I thought--I hoped it was only my own guilty conscience making me see things. I--I _have_ had a conscience. But I knew nothing--we'd not met for years." "That's all true," said Aurora to Anne, nodding toward Judge Henderson. "I've scarce spoken more than twenty words to him in twenty years. I've kept the secret, and carried the blame. Until yesterday Don never knew about himself--about his having no father. He hasn't a guess even now who his father was--or is--at least he'll never make the right guess. No one has, no one ever will. They may wrong another man, but they'll not suspect the right one." She felt the strong young arm of Anne still about her, and so went on, nodding again toward Judge Henderson--"I asked him to defend his own son--you heard me, then? And he's told me he's hired to hang his son! And I called him 'Judas.' And I pray God to sink him in hell if he does this work. After all, there must be a hell somewhere--I think there must be. This is not right--it's not right! I've stood it all till now, but I can't stand this." "Wait!" exclaimed Judge Henderson. "Give me time to think, I tell you! My whole life's up on this, as well as yours. You've had twenty years to think about this, and I've not had that many minutes. You and I've not met, I say--our paths have lain totally apart. It was in the past--we'd lived it down." "_We_ had lived it down!" Aurora Lane's laugh was bitter enough, and she made no other comment. Still she felt, closer and closer, the warm young body of the girl who stood by her as the two women faced the man in the ancient and undying battle of sex. "Well, I dropped that case," resumed Judge Henderson, "name or claim the reason as you like. But _this_ case is different----" "Why?" asked Anne Oglesby. "What's the difference between the two cases? You say you didn't know, then. Now you know." "But I've my reputation to keep clean, Anne! The higher you climb, the riskier the ladder. I could drop that little case yesterday, but let me drop _this_ case, with all the whole town back of it--and all my whole political party back of it, too--that's another matter!" "Is it, indeed!"