“Explain. Did he come often?”

“Oh, no. He — I — he came one evening up to our cabin, and — I sent him off and started next day.”

“But explain, dearest. How did he act? What was it?”

She was silent, but drew her husband’s head down and hid her face in his neck. “There! Never mind, love. You needn’t tell me if you don’t wish.”

“He kissed me and held me in his arms like they were iron bands — and I hated it. He said you had gone away never to come back, and that the whole mountain side knew it; and that he had a right to come and claim my promise to him. Oh, David, David, this is the last. I have kept nothing back from you now, nothing. My heart cried out for you —