LASSITER'S WAY
"No—no—no!" she wailed. "You said you'd foregone your vengeance. You promised not to kill Bishop Dyer."
"If you want to talk to me about him—leave off the Bishop. I don't understand that name, or its use."
"Oh, hadn't you foregone your vengeance on—on Dyer?"
"Yes."
"But—your actions—your words—your guns—your terrible looks! . . . They don't seem foregoing vengeance?"
"Jane, now it's justice."
"You'll—kill him?"
"If God lets me live another hour! If not God—then the devil who drives me!"
"You'll kill him—for yourself—for your vengeful hate?"
"No!"
"For Milly Erne's sake?"
"No."
"For little Fay's?"
"No!"
"Oh—for whose?"
"For yours!"
"His blood on my soul!" whispered Jane, and she fell to her knees. This was the long-pending hour of fruition. And the habit of years—the religious passion of her life—leaped from lethargy, and the long months of gradual drifting to doubt were as if they had never been. "If you spill his blood it 'll be on my soul—and on my father's. Listen." And she clasped his knees, and clung there as he tried to raise her. "Listen. Am I nothing to you?"
"Woman—don't trifle at words! I love you! An' I'll soon prove it!"
"I'll give myself to you—I'll ride away with you—marry you, if only you'll spare him?"
His answer was a cold, ringing, terrible laugh.
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