"I said I'd been near to your family and you didn't believe me.

Sit down, please to, and I'll tell you my story." Seating himself with a little curt laugh, Tarboe waved a hand as though to say: "Go ahead.

I'm ready." It was difficult for Denzil to begin.

He walked up and down the room, muttering and shaking his head.

Presently, however, he made the Sign of the Cross upon himself, and, leaning against the wall, and opposite to Tarboe, he began the story he had told Carnac.
His description of his dead fiancee had flashes of poetry and excruciating touches of life: "She had no mother, and there was lots of things she didn't know because of that--ah, plenty! She had to learn, and she brought on her own tragedy by not knowing that men, even when good to look at, can't be trusted; that every place, even in the woods and the fields where every one seems safe to us outdoor people, ain't safe--but no.