It was as if his words had touched fire to some secret thing, as if he had unlocked a door which grim hopelessness had closed.

He was amazed at the swiftness with which color came into her cheeks.
"You don't understand, and I am determined that you _shall_," she went on.

"I would die before I let you go away thinking what is now in your mind.

You will despise me, but I would rather be hated for the truth than because of the horrible thing which you must believe if I remain silent." She forced a wan smile to her lips.

"You know, Belinda Mulrooneys were very well in their day, but they don't fit in now, do they?
If a woman makes a mistake and tries to remedy it in a fighting sort of way, as Belinda Mulrooney might have done back in the days when Alaska was young--" She finished with a little gesture of despair.
"I have committed a great folly," she said, hesitating an instant in his silence.