He faced me to be shot, and I couldn't do it. As Steele said,
you've reason for sorrow. But you must get over it. You mustn't brood. I
do not see that you'll be disgraced or dishonored. Of course, that's not
the point. The vital thing is whether or not a woman of your
high-mindedness had real and lasting cause for shame. Steele says no. I
say no."
Then, as Miss Sampson dropped down beside me, her eyes shining and wet,
Sally entered the room in time to see her cousin bend to kiss me
gratefully with sisterly fervor. Yet it was a woman's kiss, given for
its own sake. Sally could not comprehend; it was too sudden, too
unheard-of, that Diane Sampson should kiss me, the man she did not love.
Sally's white, sad face changed, and in the flaming wave of scarlet that
dyed neck and cheek and brow I read with mighty pound of heart that,
despite the dark stain between us, she loved me still.
Chapter 15
CONVALESCENCE
Four mornings later we were aboard the stage, riding down the main
street, on the way out of Linrock. The whole town turned out to bid us
farewell. The cheering, the clamor, the almost passionate fervor of the
populace irritated me, and I could not see the incident from their point
of view.
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