tender hand with the girl to bring her to reason, and he brought all
his crude diplomacy to bear upon the matter.

When he reached the barn his son Eugene stood in the doorway. He had
just come from the woods, and the smell of wounded cedar-trees was
strong about him. He stood leaning upon his axe as if it were a
staff. "Who's been out with the mare?" he asked.

"Your sister."

"Where?"

"To New Salem."

"To see _him_?"

David nodded grimly. His lantern cast a pale circle of light on the
snow about them.

"About--that?"

"To get him to own up she did it."

Eugene Hautville stared at his father, scowling his handsome dark
brows. He was the most graceful mannered of all the Hautville sons,
and by some accounted the best-looking.

"Is she crazy?" he said.

"No, she's a woman," returned his father, with a strange accent of