" Janna, you know as well as I "

Again she stopped him with an imperious gesture ;
and, holding the weight aloft. " You have told me
much to-night," she said, " and this is my one reply."

She had steadied herself against the gunwale. With
the deadly weight grasped tight between her fingers, she
flung herself over the side.
313



why He Loved Her

YES," said Hans Golding to his companion in the
" trekschuit," "I love her for her father's
sake." He puffed once or twice at his cigar with an air
of great decision, and his eyes rested thoughtfully on
the passing landscape.
The skipper of the barge made no reply. Hans
Golding was his only passenger on this dull September
evening, and so the skipper felt aggrieved. Besides,
this stranger was a townsman from a distance, and the
skipper was wary of what he called " foreigners,"
especially when these foreigners laid claim to an older
acquaintance than his with a corner of the skipper's
small world.
The boat crept onward through the falling shadows.
Very slowly the water oozed around its ample bosom ;
very slowly the prim-cut trees sUpped past along the
straight line of duU canal. The sky sank leaden, like
a coverlet of coming sleep. One or two ducks floated
silently, too lazy to quack.
" Yes," began Hans Qolding, " it was eighteen years
ago, as I was telling you. Well, you don't remember
me, and no wonder, seeing you wasn't here. My mother,
she used to sell brooms along the highways — that was
what my mother did — she was what you'd call a tramp.
