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Show 124 THE MORMON LION sweat were gathering uj)on her grey-white face. She moved slowly because s 1e was afmost paralysed. She came close and stood staring with dilated eyes. After a time she succeeded in compelling her stiff lips to utter a shrill whisper : " What- are- you- doing? " Suddenly Cora freed me and flung herself down before the other woman, to clasp her knees in wild entreaty. " Don't tell! don't tell! Promise you'll not tell Amanda!" she sobbed. "I alone have sinned- i only am guilty I I swear it, Amanda! He is innocent I I tempted him, and he has resisted me ! Spare him !- he is your own cousin, your blood-kin I I will do anything-anything I only spare him!" "Amanda," I lied," she is crazed! Can you listen to her and doubt that she is distracted-out of her head? Look at her face I I found her rushing around outside, frantic with terror. I have tried my best to quiet her." " In- your-room ? " whispered Amanda. " He is tryin~ to shield me- he is a gentleman I " panted Cora. ' I was hiding in here when he came home. He knew nothing about it. There was no assignation. I--" " You're mad I distracted I Don't listen to her, Amanda!" " You will-you must, Amanda! Listen-! slipped in when you first went into the dining-room, before you locked the door. He had nothing to do with it I You heard me knock against a chair, and you came back so quickly you almost caught me." Amanda raised her dilated eyes. "Well, Dave? " " All the more reason to believe she is out of her head," I answered. " I swear he is not guilty! " vowed Cora. " He tried his best to repulse me. He thrust me off once. I again threw myself into his arms- no I not into his THE MORMON LION 125 arms I He did not em brace me. You must have seen that. His arms were not about me! " "That's so- Glory be!" admitted Amanda, with a world of relief in her tone. She drew her sleeve across her wet face. " It is I it is so! " cried Cora. " He did not sin, either in deed or thought. I only am guilty! I only should be punished! " Amanda burst out in a shrill unsteady cackle : " Only you- te-he-he /-<mly one 1-te-he-he-he /when it takes two to sin in that way! " " I have proved myself a sinful woman," went on Cora. " I shall do whatever you say. Yet- yet if it becomes known, you know that he too!--' She put her hands over her eyes. Amanda's wild mirth ceased as abruptly as it had be?,un. ' You swear you're innocent, Dave? " she queried. " She, too I " I asserted. "Lordyl you men- when a woman gits you into a mess! Guess, though, I can believe what she sayslucky for you, young man." "Oh, thank you! thank you, dear Amanda!" sobbed Cora. " Oh, to think I brought him into such danger!" Amanda looked down at her with more than a trace of relentment in her hard face. "Don't take on so, girl," she said. "William hasn't done altogether right by you. I don't altogether blame you." " I-I tried ; but there was the new one. If only he knew what it meant to be kind-spoken I David would not treat a dog so harshly I " " Too bad you can't take William the way I do. But, then, you wasn't bred the same, and it ain't your nature, either, I guess," commented Amanda. "Git up now. You're going to sleep with me. Land's sake! what wouldn't he say if he saw me here in this rig!" |