"Hush!" he said quickly, with a glance towards the corridor.
"Ah!" said Susy, with a malicious smile, "then that's why Captain
Pinckney was lingering in the rear with the deputy."
"Silence!" repeated Clarence sternly. "Go in there," pointing to the
garden room below the balcony, "and wait there with your husband."
He half led, half pushed her into the room which had been his business
office, and returned to the patio. A hesitating voice from the balcony
said, "Clarence!"
It was his wife's voice, but modified and gentler--more like her
voice as he had first heard it, or as if it had been chastened by some
reminiscence of those days. It was his wife's face, too, that looked
down on his--paler than he had seen it since he entered the house. She
was shawled and hooded, carrying a traveling-bag in her hand.
"I am going, Clarence," she said, pausing before him, with gentle
gravity, "but not in anger. I even ask you to forgive me for the foolish
words that I think your still more foolish accusation"--she smiled
faintly--"dragged from me. I am going because I know that I have
brought--and that while I am here I shall always be bringing--upon you
the imputation and even the responsibility of my own faith! While I am
proud to own it,--and if needs be suffer for it,--I have no right to
ruin your prospects, or even make you the victim of the slurs that
others may cast upon me.
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