“Yes, yes, if you will listen in kindness, and not glare at me in such fury, like a wild beast about to spring and devour me! Oh, gran’ther, how can you be so cruel to your poor little Eva, that loved you so!” she sobbed reproachfully. “Go on with your explanation,” he answered, with brutal impatience in his unreasoning wrath, and she sobbed on: “I never spoke to Doctor Ludington in all my life until to-night. Some one--some wicked practical joker that ought to be hung--sent him here, telling him I was ill, dying, and wished him to come. Seeing how angry I was, he explained to me, and was about to go when--when Terry entered in a senseless rage--because he loved me and was jealous. Then he would listen to nothing! He fell upon an unarmed man, the coward, and killed him! That is the true story, gran’ther, and I swear to you I am innocent!” But Patty and Lydia, who had stopped their lamentations to listen, joined in with Miss Tabitha in derisive sneers: “A likely story, indeed! Never spoke to him until to-night!” “Of course it was he that was bringing you the flowers, and poetry, and candy every night and being entertained in your room, you shameless thing, trying to pretend you had an unknown, honorable lover!” “Didn’t all of us see you down on your knees, kissing him and telling him you loved him, before he died--that bad man, the son of gran’ther’s enemy?” So they overwhelmed her with reproaches, stifling the voice of mercy in gran’ther’s breast by their plausible accusations, to which she only answered sadly: “I pitied him because he suffered for my sake! But, gran’ther, I swear to you I am innocent. Do not let my cruel enemies turn your heart against me!” No one saw the twin sisters whisper dismayedly to each other: “How did Dan come to make such a terrible mistake?” “God only knows!” “We must never let him confess the truth.” “That will be easy enough. Tell him he was the cause of all the trouble, and that he will be hung for murder if it is ever found out.” Then they turned back again to listen to Gran’ther Groves, seeking to embarrass his decision by crying out: “No wonder she hated poor Terry and was always so mean to him! Doctor Ludington was making love to her all the while, setting her against our poor brother.” “Yes; no doubt she went to meet him this afternoon when she rode out, to tell him to come and see her to-night, as every one would be away; only poor gran’ther fast asleep in his room. She did not count on Terry’s coming in the nick of time and catching them.” In the midst of their coarse denunciations Eva could but think, with a swelling heart, of how coldly and scornfully she had passed the young doctor in her canter on Firefly. Many times had they thus met and parted, never exchanging a word until to-night, and now--oh, the pity of it!--he lay there dead for the sake of one who had never given him a smile or a kind word!