She sat for a moment silent, gazing up the street, but breathing heavily.  This was not the reception she had anticipated, and it was difficult to determine swiftly what course she had best pursue.  Realizing the hold she had once had upon this man, it had never occurred to her mind that her influence had altogether departed.  Her beauty had never failed before to win such victory, and she had trusted now in reviving the old smouldering passion into sudden flame.  Yet already she comprehended the utter uselessness of such an expectation—­there was no smouldering passion to be fanned; his indifference was not assumed.  The discovery angered her, but long experience had brought control; it required only a moment to readjust her faculties, to keep the bitterness out of her voice.  When she again faced him it was to speak quietly, with convincing earnestness.

“Yes, I realize it is too late for explanations,” she acknowledged, “so I will attempt none.  I wished you to know, however, that I did not desert you for that man.  This was my principal purpose in sending for you.”

“Do you know where he is?”

She hesitated ever so slightly, yet he, watching her closely, noted it.

“No; at the close of the war he came home, commanding the regiment which should have been yours.  Within three months he had converted all the family property into cash and departed.  There was a rumor that he was engaged in the cattle business.”

“You actually expect me to believe all this—­that you knew nothing of his plans—­were not, indeed, a part of them?”

“I am indifferent as to what you believe,” she replied coldly.  “But you are ungentlemanly to express yourself so freely.  Why should you say that?”

“Because I chance to know more than you suppose.  Never mind how the information reached me; had it been less authentic you might find me now more susceptible to your presence, more choice in my language.  A carefully conceived plot drove me from the Confederate service, in which you were as deeply involved as Le Fevre.  Its double object was to advance him in rank and get me out of the way.  The plan worked perfectly; I could have met and fought either object alone, but the two combined broke me utterly.  I had no spirit of resistance left.  Yet even then—­in spite of that miserable letter—­I retained faith in you.  I returned home to learn the truth from your own lips, only to discover you had already gone.  I was a month learning the facts; then I discovered you had married Le Fevre in Richmond; I procured the affidavit of the officiating clergyman.  Will you deny now?”

“No,” changing her manner instantly—­“what is the use?  I married the man, but I was deceived, misled.  There was no conspiracy in which I was concerned.  I did not know where you were; from then until this afternoon I never saw or heard of you.  Molly told me of her rescue by a soldier named Hamlin, but I never suspected the truth until we drove by the barracks.  Then I yielded to my first mad impulse and sent that note.  If you felt toward me with such bitterness, why did you come here?  Why consent to meet me again?”