'No—yes. I heard her name from him only in the ravings of fever. He never thought I knew, till the very last: then I named her once; then he kissed me; then he went.'
She turned back to the earliest evidence, telling in detail of Christian's mad course with her; then of his ravings that remained in her memory painfully distinct; she kept back nothing. Later she came to faltering for a moment till Lois urged:
'And he asked you to be his wife?'
'Yes.'
'And because of this knowledge you refused him?'
'Yes. And he kissed me for joy of that nay-saying. On the very morrow he went—do you remember? It was to her, I knew it.'
'O Rhoda, you might have saved him, and you did not!'
Rhoda raised her head and looked her wonder, for Christian's sake, with resentment.
'God smote one,' she said, 'whose hand presumed to steady His ark.'
'O child, have you nothing to show to clear him?'