“What—­did—­Bill Trim tell you?” Lynda tried with all her strength to keep her mind cool, her thoughts steady.  She wanted to lead Nella-Rose on and on, without losing the way herself.

“That he burned—­he didn’t mean to—­he burned the letter I sent—­asking—­”

“I see!  You wrote—­a letter, then?”

“Yes.  He told me, if I wanted him—­and I did—­Godda’mighty! how I wanted him then!” Nella-Rose clasped her poor little work-hardened hands close, and her small white teeth showed through the parted lips while she struggled to regain her calm.

“You see—­when I gave the letter to Bill Trim, I—­I told him—­I had to—­that it was Miss Lois Ann’s, so he didn’t think it mattered to me; but when he was dying—­he was hurt on the big road they are making in the hills—­he was brought to us-all, and Miss Lois Ann and I took care of him, and he grew right sorry for hating her and not telling about the letter—­and then—­he spoke it out!”

“I see.  I see.  And that was—­how long ago—­that you wrote the letter?”

Nella-Rose looked back over the weary way she had travelled, to this moment in the warm, sun-filled room.

“It was befo’ lil’ Ann came that I sent the letter,” she faltered.

“Little Ann?” Lynda repeated the name and something terrible rose within her—­something that would kill her unless she conquered it.  So she asked quickly, desperately: 

“Your—­your child?  I see.  Go on—­Nella-Rose.”

“I wrote the letter and—­sent it.  I was hid in Miss Lois Ann’s cabin—­it was winter—­and no one found out!  Miss Lois Ann wouldn’t believe what I told; she said when him and me was married under the trees and God understood, it didn’t make me—­right!  She—­helped me, but she hated—­him!  And then when he—­didn’t come, she taught me to—­to hate, and it was right black hate until lil’ Ann came.  When God let her down to me—­He took the hate away.”

Lynda was blinded by her tears.  She could hardly see the small figure crouching in the low chair by the fire.

“And then—­Miss Lois Ann went and told my folks—­told Marg, my sister.  Marg was married to Jed and she was mighty scornful of me and lil’ Ann.  She wouldn’t tell Jed and my father—­she came alone to me.  She told me what folks thought.  They-all thought I’d gone away with Burke Lawson and Marg felt sorry to see me alive—­with lil’ Ann.  But Miss Lois Ann wouldn’t let her sting me with her tongue—­she drove her away.  Then—­Burke came!  He’d been a right long way off—­he’d broken his leg; he came as soon as he could, and Marg told him and—­and laid lil’ Ann to him!”

“And you—­never spoke?  You never told?” Lynda had drawn very close—­her words were barely above a whisper.

“No.  It was this-er-way.  First, love for him held my tongue mighty still; then hate; and afterwards I couldn’t!”

“But now, Nella-Rose, now—­why have you spoken—­now?”