Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/139



OR the first moment I doubted everything; it must be some mistake; a sudden gust of wind had slammed the door shut. I could not conceive this as the deliberate act of Jean Denslow. I even called her name, believing she would hasten to release me. But there was no response, no sound of any kind from without, and the truth came, forcing itself upon me, that I had been deliberately deceived, treacherously imprisoned. The knowledge cf the girl's deceit hurt me more at first than my own physical condition. I had been hoping for something better; even dreaming that she manifested an interest in me despite my uniform. But now all this was rudely shattered. Yet how could I justly blame her? She had merely performed what she considered a duty, and I had blindly walked into the trap. That I had been a fool was surely no fault of hers. Even as I hammered away on the oaken door there came to me a glimmering of her motives, a respect for her action. I was nothing to her mind; merely an inquisitive Yankee officer searching for one she knew, one she felt obligated to protect. The man might even be concealed within the house; or if not, some clue leading to his whereabouts was to be discovered there. If this was true then the girl had [ 129 ]