"Now, go back to Annie and Robby, Tobe," Dolly advised. "Poor girl! She will be uneasy about you." "No, she won't bother," Barnett answered, firmly. "She'd be willing to have me go to jail to help you, Miss Dolly. She is that grateful she'd cut off her hands to oblige you, an' she will be powerful happy when she knows this went through all right. Good night, Miss Dolly; good night, Mr. Mostyn." Dolly and her companion turned back toward the house as Barnett trudged off down the road. "Well, I'm glad it came out all right," Mostyn said, lamely; but Dolly, still listless, made no reply. Silently she walked by his side, her pretty head down. An impulse of the heart impelled him to take her hand. He was drawing her yielding form to him when she looked straight into his eyes. "I was wondering--" she began, but checked herself. "What were you wondering, Dolly?" The fire of his whole being was roused; it throbbed in his lips, thickened his tongue, and blazed in his eyes. It filled his voice like a stream from a bursting dam. "Why, I was wondering"--her sweet face glowed in the moonlight as from the reflection of his own--"I was wondering how you happened to think that Tobe was some young man that--that I cared enough for to--" "I was insanely jealous." Mostyn put his arm about her, drew her breast against his, and pressed his lips to hers. "I was mad and crazy. I couldn't think--I couldn't reason. Dolly, I _love_ you. I love you with all my heart." "Yes, I know." She seemed not greatly surprised at the avowal. She put her hand on the side of his face and gently stroked it. Then, of her own accord, she kissed him lightly on the lips. "There," she said, "that will do for to-night. I ought not to be here like this--you know that--but I am happy, and--" "You have not said"--he held her closer to him, now by gentle force, and kissed her again--"you have not said that you love me." "What is the use?" she sighed, contentedly. "You have known it all these years. I have never cared for any one else, or thought of any one else since you were here before. I was only a child, but I was old enough to know my heart. You are the only man who ever held me this way. There is no use saying it--you know I love you. You know I couldn't help it. I'd be a queer girl if I didn't." He tried to detain her at the steps, but she would not stay. She entered the house, leaving the door open so that he might go up to his room. CHAPTER XII The next day was Sunday. Mostyn did not see Dolly at breakfast. Drake sat at the head of the table as unconcerned as if nothing unusual had happened to him in the night. He spoke to John Webb and Mrs. Drake about the meeting to be held that day at the church and praised the preacher's powers and sincerity. It was the philosophical Webb who had something to say more in harmony with Mostyn's reflections. "I understand the revenue men made another haul last night," he said, a watchful eye on his brother-in-law.