"Yes, it is beautiful. I am glad the prisoner escaped. Was he a fisherman?"
"No; an officer of the Excise—a gallant man, with a wife and many children. Yes, I suppose he prized life."
"And I am glad that the smugglers were all killed."
Landless smiled. "Life to them was sweet, too, perhaps."
"I do not care. They were wicked men who deserved to die. They had murdered and robbed. They were criminals—"
She stopped short, and her face turned from white to red and then to white again, and her eyes sought the ground.
"I had forgotten," she muttered.
The hot color rose to Landless's cheek, but he said quietly:—
"You had forgotten what, madam?"
She flashed a look upon him. "You know," she said icily.