r?"

"I was innocent; but my name, my father's honored name, was in jeopardy
of dishonor, and to protect it, I would not undeceive you. Had my
brother been convicted, the established guilt would have tarnished
forever our only legacy, all that father left to Bertie and to me--his
spotless name."

"You are quibbling. Did you shield the family name by enduring the
purgatory of seeing your own on the list of penitentiary convicts? You
deliberately fastened the odium of the crime upon your father's
daughter; and you knew, you understood perfectly, that by strengthening
my erroneous supposition, you were lashing me to a pursuit of the
person, whom you could have best protected by frankly telling me all.
If he is really your brother, what did you expect to accomplish by
fostering my belief that he was your lover?"

"Mr. Dunbar, spare me this inquisition. Release me from the rack of
suspense. Tell me why you set this snare, baited with Bertie's name?"

"I must first end my own suspense. If you wish to find the man, you
tell me is your brother, I will aid you only when you have bared your
heart to me. You had some powerful incentive unrevealed. I will know
exactly, why you made me suffer all these years, the pangs of a
devouring jealousy, keener than a vulture's talons."

With crimson cheeks, and shy, averted eyes, she sat trembling;
unconsciously locking and unlocking her fingers. Her head drooped, and
the voice was a low flutter:

"If I had told you that the handkerchief was one I gave to my brother,
because he fancied the gay border, and that the pipe belonged to my
dear father, and if you had known that for more than a year before I
went to X---no tidings from that brother had reached me, would you have
kept my secret, when you saw my life laid in the scales held by the
jury? Suppose they had condemned me to death? I expected that fate; but
knowing the truth, would you have permitted the execution of that
sentence?"

"Certainly not; and you understand why I should never have allowed it."

"I knew that in such an emergency I could not trust you."

Five minutes passed, while he silently sought to unravel the web; and
Beryl dared not meet his gaze.

"You had some stronger motive, else you would have confessed all, when
I started to Dakota. Anxiety for your brother's safety would have
unsealed your lips. What actuated you then? I mean to know everything
now."

"Miss Gordon was my friend. She showed me kindness wh