Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/150

 in them?" It was General Ruysdale who spoke.

"I cannot tell," said Margaret, "I think that I know nothing of men; and if they are as you describe them, I am glad that I do not."

"And why should you hold yourself aloof from sinful men because you, in your ignorance of evil, cannot understand the crimes into which they fall? If you should learn that your brother or your friend had committed the crime of Cain, which you assume to be an unpardonable one, would not that man still be your brother, your friend?"

"No; for he would no longer be the man I had loved, but a stranger."

"You would put him from your heart? You would deny him your love?"

"He would have killed it with the selfsame blow that sought his brother's life."

The words came slowly, and Feuardent saw that her hands griped each other painfully and that her face was very white and set; and then without looking at her he read her thoughts, half consciously, as he had done so many times since that day at the fête when they had danced that mad dance together; and when he knew what was in her mind, he started to his feet, stifling a groan that had risen to his lips, and left her without a word.