"Do I?" asked he. For he discovered at that moment that the question he must now put was a cruel one, and could not be shirked or smoothed over.
"Alas!" She uttered the one deprecating word slowly, and moved on in silence.
The bull calf pushed its powerful head under her hand, which now hung free, and she walked, leaning upon it, till the mastiff slowly inserted himself between the two, and, with a sudden push of its side, ousted the calf, who took a short scamper and returned head downward toward the mastiff's broad flank. The terrier laughed aloud: no one could have interpreted his snorts of delight otherwise. The mastiff reluctantly withdrew his soft nose from Bertha's palm, and attended to matters of defense. All the calves scattered in an ungainly dance, and all returned circling the dogs with lowered heads. Bertha watched these antics with a sad smile; then by sundry cuffs and pats put an end to the feud.
When they had fed the calves and the other creatures who lived in sumptuous hutches and sties behind the barn, Durgan asked his question.
Chapter XX THE TERRIBLE CONFESSION
Bertha and Durgan were standing in the broad central doorway of the barn. Hay, full of meadow flowers, was piled high to right and left. The air was full of dried pollen, and golden with the level sunlight.
"Do you know who it was that killed your parents?" Durgan asked.
She put up trembling hands in the brave pretense of shielding her eyes from the sun. Her whole body shook; her head sank on her breast.