nd how did _they_ receive you in their fine Madison Avenue mansion?"
queried Mr. Grimes, looking up at her slily again.

"Just as you know they did," returned Helen, briefly.

"Ha! How's that? And you with all that----"

He halted and--for a moment--had the grace to blush. He saw that she read
his mind.

"They do not know that I have some money for emergencies," said Helen,
coolly.

"Ho, ho!" chuckled Mr. Grimes, suddenly.

"So they consider you a pauper relative from the West?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ho, ho!" he laughed again, and rubbed his hands. "How _did_ Prince leave
you fixed?"

"I--I have something beside the money you saw me counting," she told him,
bluntly.

"And Willets Starkweather doesn't know it?"

"He has never asked me if I were in funds."

"I bet you!" cackled Grimes, at last giving way to a spasm of mirth which,
Helen thought, was not nice to look upon. "And how does he fancy having
you in his family?"

"He does not like it. Neither do his daughters. And one of their reasons
is because people will ask questions about Prince Morrell's daughter. They
are afraid their friends will bring up father's old trouble," continued
Helen, her voice quivering. "So that is why, Mr. Grime's, I am determined
to know the truth about it."

"The truth? What do you mean?" snarled Grimes, suddenly starting out of
his chair.

"Why, sir," said Helen, amazed, "dad told me all about it when he was
dying. All he knew. But he said by this time surely the truth of the
matter must have come to light. I want to clear his name----"

"How are you going to do _that_?" demanded Mr. Grimes.

"I hope you will help me--if you can, sir," she said, pleadingly.

"How can I help more now than I could at the time he was charged with the
crime?"

"I do not know. Perhaps you can't. Perhaps Uncle Starkweather cannot,
either. But, it seems to me, if anything had been heard from that
bookkeeper----"

"Allen Chesterton?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well! I don't know how you are going to prove it, but I have always
believed Allen was guilty," declared Mr. Grimes, nodding his head
vigorously, and still watching her face.

"Oh, have you, Mr. Grimes?" cried the girl, eagerly, clasping her hands.
"You have _always_ believed it?"

"Quite so. Evidence was against my old partner--yes. But it wasn't very
direct. And then--what became of Allen? Why did he run away?"

"That is what other people said about father," said Helen, doubtfully. "It
did