Jessamine let fall the child's hand.
“Cause she liked him onced, and he liked her.”
Jessamine gazed at Lin.
“It's simple,” said the cow-puncher. “It's all right.”
But Jessamine sat by her lamp, very pale.
“It's all right,” repeated Lin in the silence, shifting his foot and looking down. “Once I made a fool of myself. Worse than usual.”
“Billy?” whispered Jessamine. “Then you—But his name is Lusk!”
“Course it is,” said Billy. “Father and mother are living in Laramie.”
“It's all straight,” said the cow-puncher. “I never saw her till three years ago. I haven't anything to hide, only—only—only it don't come easy to tell.”
I rose. “Miss Buckner,” said I, “he will tell you. But he will not tell you he paid dearly for what was no fault of his. It has been no secret. It is only something his friends and his enemies have forgotten.”