It was she who rose highest now, as literally she did, in standing on the
stone where she had crouched, above the level of his footing.

"I--I say it to spare you, Nancy. I don't wish it. But I wish to make it
easy--or a little bit easier--something you can bear better."

"Oh, I know, David, I know! You would save me if you could. But maybe
--maybe it ain't what we think it is. Maybe he was outlawed by staying
away so long?"

Neither of them named Dylks, but each knew whom the other meant,
throughout their talk.

"A lawyer might let you think so till he got all your money."

"Matthew Braile wouldn't."

"That infidel?"

She drooped again. "Oh, well, I must do it. I must do it. I'll go and get
ready and I'll come to you. What will Jane think?"

"I'll take care of what Jane thinks. When do you expect Laban back?"

"Not before sundown. I'll not come till I see him."

"We'll be ready for you." He moved now to open the spring-house door; she
turned and was lost to him in the lights and shadows of the woods-pasture.
On its further border her cabin stood, and from it came the sound of a