Her eyes slid past him blankly to rest upon Aaron's face. How terribly hurt he must be, she thought, how desperately unhappy! He has never been unjust to me before. Can he think I would desert him, I who love him more than anything in life? She saw him again as he had been when they came into the room, slumped, defenseless—old, and a painful terror closed around her heart. He must never be vulnerable. Never! Always he must be shining, invincible. Nothing mattered compared to that.

And now the echo of Meme's angry question reached her. Her body stiffened. She raised her chin, looking at him as though he had been an offensive stranger.

'I had rather not live than not be the daughter of such a man,' she said quietly.

Aaron drew a sharp breath. There was triumph in his face, a fleeting shame and gratitude. She went over to him and knelt beside him.

Merne watched them, and his throat grew dry. This was a love that he could not understand, and its object he thought dismally unworthy. But into that bleak prison room it had brought beauty. And there are many kinds of love; who was he to judge?

'You win, my Theodosia,' he murmured. 'Destiny shall deal with your father, as it will in any case, but I shall not meddle.'

He rapped softly on the door to attract the jailer. The two Burrs, torn from their deep preoccupation with each other, looked up at the sound.

'Good-bye,' said Merne. 'No, you needn't worry'. He answered the frightened question in Theo's eyes. He smiled ruefully, made her a small brief bow. 'I shall leave Richmond tonight.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE trial dragged on during the sweltering August days. Joseph appeared for a week, ill at ease and grumpy. He tried to persuade Theo to return with him at once, and she ignored him. Not only ignored him, but seemed, in a curious and alarming way, to be unaware of his presence. He occupied a room not far from hers in the borrowed house; they occasionally dined together when she was not with her father; but her eyes looked past him; she answered politely, chatted about the weather, even expressed some courteous appreciation of his coming—all without giving him the slightest feeling of contact. There was no hostility in this blankness. There was no emotion at all.

Joseph made a few half-hearted attempts to clear his own name, suffered an extremely uncomfortable interview with Blennerhassett. The Irishman was now also imprisoned and standing trial with his 'sovereign in expectancy,' and, while he remained loyal to Aaron, he did not scruple to hide his contempt for Joseph.