we need not be
vulgar enough to say _why_ we change toward her."

Mr. Starkweather thumped upon the table with the handle of his knife.

"Girls!" he commanded. "I will have this explained. What do you mean?"

Out it came then--in a torrent. Three girls can do a great deal of talking
in a few minutes--especially if they all talk at once.

But Mr. Starkweather got the gist of it. He understood what it all meant,
and he realized what it meant to _him_, as well, better than his daughters
could.

Prince Morrell, whom he had always considered a bit of a fool, and
therefore had not even inquired about after he left for the West, had died
a rich man. He had left this only daughter, who was an heiress to great
wealth. And he, Willets Starkweather, had allowed the chance of a lifetime
to slip through his fingers!

If he had only made inquiries about the girl and her circumstances! He
might have done that when he learned that Mr. Morrell was dead. When Helen
had told him her father wished her to be in the care of her mother's
relatives, Mr. Starkweather could have then taken warning and learned the
girl's true circumstances. He had not even accepted her confidences. Why,
he might have been made the guardian of the girl, and handled all her
fortune!

These thoughts and a thousand others raced through the scheming brain of
the man. Could he correct his fault at this late date? If he had only
known of this that his daughters had learned from Jess Stone, before he
had taken Helen to task as he had that very evening!

Fenwick Grimes had telephoned to him at his office. Something Mr. Grimes
had said--and he had not seen Mr. Grimes nor talked personally with him
for years--had put Mr. Starkweather into a great fright. He had decided
that the only safe place for Helen Morrell was back in the West--he
supposed with the poor and ignorant people on the ranch where her father
had worked.

Where Prince Morrell had _worked_! Why, if Morrell had owned Sunset Ranch,
Helen was one of the wealthiest heiresses in the whole Western country.
Mr. Starkweather had asked a few questions about Sunset Ranch of men who
knew. But, as the owner had never given himself any publicity, the name of
Morrell was never connected with it.

While the three girls chattered over the details of the story Mr.
Starkweather merely played with his food, and sat staring into a corner of
the room. He was trying to scheme his way out of the difficulty--the
dangerou