He stroked her hair, her cheek, gently. He felt his lids grow moist and a tenderness he never had known came over him. "I have told you this for a purpose," he whispered in her ear--"I will take you to them, now." She raised her wet eyes--flushed. He watched her closely to see signs of any battle there. And then his heart gave a great leap and surged madly as she said calmly: "No--no--it is too late--too late--now. I--could--never explain. I will go with you, Richard Travis, to the end of the world." He sat very still and looked at her kneeling there as a child would, both hands clasped around his knee, and looking into his eyes with hers, gray-brown and gloriously bright. They were calm--so calm, and determined and innocent. They thrilled him with their trust and the royal beauty of her faith. There came to him an upliftedness that shook him. "To the end of the world," he said--"ah, you have said so much--so much more than I could ever deserve." "I have stood it all as long as I could. My father's drunkenness, I could stand that, and Mammy's forsaking us, as I thought--that, too. When the glory of work, of earning my own living opened itself to me,--Oh, I grasped it and was happy to think that I could support them! That's why your temptation--why--I--" He winced and was silent. "They were nothing," she went on, "but to be forgotten, forsaken by--by--" "Clay?" he helped her say. "Oh," she flushed--"yes,--that was part of it, and then to see--to see--you so different--with this strange look on you--something which says so plainly to me that--that--oh, forgive me, but do you know I seem to see you dying--dying all the time, and now you are so changed--indeed--oh please understand me--I feel differently toward you--as I would toward one dying for sympathy and love." She hid her face again. He felt his face grow hot. He sat perfectly still, listening. At last she said: "When I came here to-night and saw it all--empty--I thought: 'This means I am deserted by all--he has brought me here to see it--to know it. What can I do but go with him? It is all that is left. Did I make myself? Did I give myself this fatal beauty--for you say I am beautiful. And did I make you with your strength--your conquering strength, and--Oh, could I overcome my environment?' But now--now--it is different--and if I am lost, Richard Travis--it will be your fault--yours and God's." He stroked her hair. He was pale and that strange light which Jud Carpenter had seen in his eyes that afternoon blazed now with a nervous flash. "That is my story," she cried. "It is now too late even for God to come and tell me through you--now since we--you and I--oh, how can I say it--you have taken me this way--you, so strong and brave and--grand--" He flushed hot with shame. He put his hand gently over her mouth. "Hush--hush--child--my God--you hurt me--shame me--you know not what you say."