Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/149

Rh in her. But after I got there I was ashamed and sorry, and I tried not to make her feel it."

"So you gave her two dollars for four plants! It takes a woman to know how to humiliate a woman!"

"I saw she was n't the kind of person Maud thought she was," continued Letitia, going blindly on. "I was certain they made a mistake in saying the things they did about her. Even if you were giving them money, even if you were supporting them, she was n't that kind."

"Who told you I was supporting them?"

"Oh, I don't know—people say it. And maybe I did do her an injustice in going there and spying on her, as you say. But you are the one who has done her a real injustice—the kind of injustice that hurts."

"I!" he exclaimed, too surprised to defend himself. "What have I done?"

"You 've kept it all so secret that you made people think there was something wrong about it."

"Letitia," he cried, in a tone of warning, "take care! You 've meddled enough already."

"You hid away your friendship with her as if it were shameful. You acted as if you were ashamed of her and of your knowing her—as if there was something wicked about her, so you