صفحة 338 من 439

She choked back the tears, and spoke in deep self-scorn. "No! You

don't deserve anything except what you've been getting from

me--suspicion and distrust and hard words! You haven't done

anything worth speaking of--just broke into a quarrel that wasn't

yours, at the risk of your life; then took it on your shoulders

to let us escape; and, afterward, when you were captured, refused

to drag me in, because I happen to be a girl! But it's not worth

mentioning that you did all this for strangers, and that later

you did not tell even me, because you knew it would trouble me

that I had killed him, though in self-defense. And to think that

all the time I've been full of hateful suspicions about you! Oh,

you don't know how I despise myself!"

She let her head fall upon her arm on the table, and sobbed.

Fraser, greatly disturbed, patted gently the heavy coil of

blue-black hair.