"I might have known she was false to me," she said bitterly, "and that
you would wheedle her soul away as you have others. Well, she betrayed
me! For what?"
A flush passed over Brant's face. But with an effort he contained
himself.
"It was the flower that betrayed you! The flower whose red dust fell in
the box when you opened it on the desk by the window in yonder room--the
flower that stood in the window as a signal--the flower I myself
removed, and so spoiled the miserable plot that your friends concocted."
A look of mingled terror and awe came into her face.
"YOU changed the signal!" she repeated dazedly; then, in a lower
voice, "that accounts for it all!" But the next moment she turned
again fiercely upon him. "And you mean to tell me that she didn't help
you--that she didn't sell me--your wife--to you for--for what was it? A
look--a kiss!"
"I mean to say that she did not know the signal was changed, and that
she herself restored it to its place. It is no fault of hers nor yours
that I am not here a prisoner."
She passed her thin hand dazedly across her forehead.
"I see," she muttered. Then again bursting out passionately, she
said--"Fool! you never would have been touched! Do you think that Lee
would have gone for you, with higher game in your division commander?
No! Those supports were a feint to draw him to your assistance while our
main column broke his centre.
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