"Why do you say persecuted?"
"Because your acts have assumed that form, Lieutenant Galesworth. You persist in seeking me after I have requested to be left alone."
"Miss Hardy," and my eyes met hers, "has it ever occurred to you that you may be the one in the wrong, the one mistaken? I am simply here to explain, to tell you the truth, and compel you to do justice."
"Indeed! how compel? With the revolver in your belt?"
"No; merely by a statement of facts, to be proven, if necessary, by the evidence of your father and Captain Bell. I am not asking you to believe me, but surely they have no occasion for falsifying. Why have you not listened to them?"
"Listened!" startled by my words. "I would have listened, but they have said nothing. They have seemed to avoid all reference to what has occurred. I thought they were trying to spare me pain, humiliation. Is there something concealed, something I do not know?"
"If I may judge from your words and action the entire truth has been kept from you," and I advanced a step or two nearer. "I am not the one to come with an explanation, but your father has failed, and I am not willing to go away until this matter is made clear. Whether you believe, or not, you must listen."
She stared at me, still trembling from head to foot, and yet there was a different expression in her eyes-- puzzled doubt.
"You--you will have much to explain," she said slowly. "If--if I were you I should hardly attempt it."
"Which must mean, Miss Hardy, that you are already so prejudiced a fair hearing is impossible. Yet I thought you, at least, a friend."