The results of this Johnston delusion were destined to bear fatal fruit in the hour of the South's supreme trial.
CHAPTER XXXV
SUSPICION
Jennie Barton had refused to listen to Captain Welford's accusation of treachery against her lover but the seed of suspicion had been planted. It grew with such rapidity her peace of mind was utterly destroyed.
In vain she put the ugly thought aside.
"It's impossible!" she murmured a hundred times only to come back to the idea that would not down.
Night after night she tossed on her pillow unable to sleep. The longer she faced the problem of Socola's character and antecedents the more probable became the truth of Dick's suspicions. She had made his present position in the State Department possible.
Again her love rose in rebellion. "It's a lie—a lie!" she sobbed. "I won't believe it. Dick's crazy jealousy's at the bottom of it all—"