For a moment the spell was broken. He caught his breath. He had forgotten Justine--his own Justine! His composure fled, his eyes wavered before the laughing eyes of his inquisitor. His lips parted with the impulse to blurt out that she was his wife, when he remembered Converse. He had led Converse with the others to consider him unmarried, unintentionally and innocently he knew down in his heart. His helpless looks from one to the other showed such unmistakable signs of embarrassment that Miss Wood hastily sought to relieve the situation, fearing she had committed a painful blunder. "I beg your pardon. It is not my affair and I----" she began, but Converse, obtuse and rejoicing in Jud's discomfiture, interrupted. "O, she's still there, all right, all right. Look at his blushes! I wish I had the luck he has." "Douglass Converse, I'll send you to the library if you don't keep quiet. I hope you will pardon my natural curiosity, Mr. Sherrod," she said, gravely. Sherrod caught his breath again and battled for an instant with something in his throat, then allowed a deeper flush to follow the first--the flush that comes with criminal bravery. "I don't mind telling you about her. She still lives down at my old home and often writes to me about you, wondering whether I have seen you," he said in a hard voice, fully resolved to deceive for the time being. "Don't forget to let me know what she says when you tell her you have really seen me. I am so interested in her. What is her name?" Without a moment's hesitation he took the plunge. "Justine Van." "What an odd name. Yet she was an odd looking girl. Her beauty was so different, so fresh, so pure. I hope the gay life of the city is not turning you away from that jewel down there. O, I know what the city does for young men who come from the country. It usually spoils them. They forget the best, the truest part of their lives, and they let new faces drive out the old and loving ones." "I--I don't think you quite understand the situation," floundered Jud, moved to contrition. Had she not interrupted at that instant, he would have told the truth.