“I want to stay here,” moaned Flea; “but what I have that hurts me is here.”  She drew his fingers close over her heart.  “It isn’t anything anybody can help—­just yet.”

“I could help you, Fledra,” Horace insisted.  “Every man has the power to help the woman he loves, and you are a woman, Fledra.”

“I want to be your woman.”

Young as she was, Fledra was an enigma to him.  There was but one way to make her his woman,—­his wife,—­that was to force her confidence, and, once obtained, keep it.  But his longing to caress her was stronger than his desire to conquer her,—­the warmth and softness of her lips he would not exchange for the world’s wealth!

“Sweetheart, Sweetheart!” he said, reddening.  “I’m sorry that I spoke as I did last night,—­I was angry,—­but I’ve had such awful moods lately!  Sometimes I’ve felt as if I could whip you to make you tell me!”

A thrill ran over Fledra from head to foot.

“Beat me—­will you beat me?” she murmured, drawing his hand across her moist lips.  “I’d love to have you beat me!  Pappy Lon always said that a woman needed beatin’ to make her stand around.  Then, when I saw you, I thought as how princes never beat their women; but now I know you have to.”

If the young face had been less earnest, the gray eyes less entreating, Horace would have laughed despite his anger.

“Of course, I shan’t whip you, child,” he said; “only I want you to prove your love for me by trusting me.  You’re a woman, Fledra.  It would be an outrage to punish you that way.  Then, too, I love you too well to hurt you.”

She watched him for one tense moment.  She was quivering under his firm grasp like a leaf in the wind.  Her eyes were entreating him to trust her, to take her, regardless of her seeming stubbornness.

“Fledra,” he whispered, “if the time ever comes that you can, will you tell me all about it?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll not lie again?”

“I’ve never lied to you!” came sullenly.

“Never, Fledra?”

“Never!”

“And you won’t tell another untruth to Ann, either—–­ not even once?”

Fledra’s mind flashed to Everett.  She might have to lie to keep Ann’s happiness for her.  She slowly drew her hand away, and turned fretfully with a hatred against Brimbecomb for bringing all this misery upon them.

“I’m not going to promise you that I won’t lie to Sister Ann; but I’ll tell you the truth, always—­always—­”

Because he did not understand a woman’s heart, Horace opened the door, white and angered.

“It is beyond my comprehension that you should treat a woman as you have my sister.  You take advantage of her generosity, and expect me to uphold you in it!”

There was a catch of genuine sorrow in his voice.  Slowly Fledra looked back over her shoulder at him.

“You’ve promised me that you’d never tell anybody what I told you.”