He fell to pacing the narrow limits of his room; four steps took him to the door, then he turned and four steps took him back to his starting-point, the barred window.  Presently a footfall sounded in the corridor, a key was fitted in the heavy lock, and the door was opened by Brockett, the sheriff’s deputy, a round-faced, jolly, little man with a shiny bald head and a closely cropped gray mustache.

“You’ve got visitors, John!” said Brockett cheerfully, pausing in the doorway.

North turned on him swiftly.

“The general and Miss Herbert,—­you see your friends ain’t forgot you!  You’ll want to see them, I suppose, and you’d rather go down in the office, wouldn’t you?”

“I should much prefer it!” said North.

His first emotion had been one of keen delight, but as he followed Brockett down the corridor the memory of what he was, and where he was, came back to him.  He had no right to demand anything of love or friendship,—­guilty or innocent mattered not at all!  They were nearing the door now beyond which stood Elizabeth and her father, and North paused, placing a hand on the deputy’s arm.  The spirit of his renunciation had been strong within him, but another feeling was stronger still, he found; an ennobling pride in her devotion and trust.  What a pity the finer things of life were so often the impractical!  He pushed past the deputy and entered the office.

Elizabeth came toward him with hands extended.  Her cheeks were quite colorless but the smile that parted her lips was infinitely tender and compassionate.

“You should not have come here!” North said, almost reproachfully, as his hands closed about hers.

General Herbert stood gravely regarding the two, and his glance when it rested on North was troubled and uncertain.  The difficulties which beset this luckless fellow were only beginning, and what would the end be?

“Father!”

Elizabeth had turned toward him, and he advanced with as brave a show of cordiality as he could command; but North read and understood the look of pain in his frank gray eyes.

“You agree with me that she should never have come here,” North said quietly.  “But you couldn’t refuse her!” he added, and his glance went back to Elizabeth.

“Under the circumstances it was right for her to come!” said the general.  But in his heart he was none too sure.

“I couldn’t remain away after to-day; I had been waiting for that stupid jury to act—­” She ended abruptly with a little laugh that became a sob, and her father rested a large and gentle hand upon her shoulder.

“There, dear, I told you all along it wouldn’t do to count on any jury!”