Before her cousin could recover, Virginia slid down from the desk and had come between them. How her eyes shone and her lip trembled as she gazed at him, Stephen has never forgotten. What a woman she was as she took her cousin's arm and made him a curtsey. "What you have done may seem a light thing to you, Captain Brice," she said. "That is apt to be the way with those who have big hearts. You have put upon Colonel Colfax, and upon me, a life's obligation." When she began to speak, Clarence raised his head. As he glanced, incredulous, from her to Stephen, his look gradually softened, and when she had finished, his manner had become again frank, boyish, impetuous --nay, penitent. He seized Stephen's hand. "Forgive me, Brice," he cried. "Forgive me. I should have known better. I--I did you an injustice, and you, Virginia. I was a fool--a scoundrel." Stephen shook his head. "No, you were neither," he said. Then upon his face came the smile of one who has the strength to renounce, all that is dearest to him--that smile of the unselfish, sweetest of all. It brought tears to Virginia. She was to see it once again, upon the features of one who bore a cross, --Abraham Lincoln. Clarence looked, and then he turned away toward the door to the stairway, as one who walks blindly, in a sorrow. His hand was on the knob when Virginia seemed to awake. She flew after him: "Wait!" she whispered. Then she raised her eyes, slowly, to Stephen, who was standing motionless beside his chair. "Captain Brice!" "Yes," he answered. "My father is in the Judge's room," she said. "Your father!" he exclaimed. "I thought--" "That he was an officer in the Confederate Army. So he is." Her head went up as she spoke. Stephen stared at her, troubled. Suddenly her manner, changed. She took a step toward him, appealingly. "Oh, he is not a spy," she cried. "He has given Mr Brinsmade his word that he came here for no other purpose than to see me. Then he heard that the Judge was dying--" "He has given his word to Mr. Brinsmade? "Yes." "Then," said Stephen, "what Mr. Brinsmade sanctions is not for me to question." She gave him yet another look, a fleeting one which he did not see. Then she softly opened the door and passed into the room of the dying man. Stephen followed her. As for Clarence, he stood for a space staring after them. Then he went noiselessly down the stairs into the street. CHAPTER XI LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT When the Judge opened his eyes for the last time in this world, they fell first upon the face of his old friend, Colonel Carvel. Twice he tried to speak his name, and twice he failed. The third time he said it faintly. "Comyn!" "Yes, Silas." "Comyn, what are you doing here? "I reckon I came to see you, Silas," answered the Colonel. "To see me die," said the Judge, grimly. Colonel Carvel's face twitched, and the silence in that little room seemed to throb.