till you can? I have
gone through much, Mr. Brotherson."

"You have," came in steady assent as the man thus addressed stepped to
the door he had indicated and quietly closed it. "But," he continued, as
he crossed back to his former position, "would it be easier for you to
go through the night now in anticipation of what I have to reveal than
to hear it at once from my lips while I am in the mood to speak?"

The answer was slow in coming. The courage which had upheld this rapidly
aging man through so many trying interviews, seemed inadequate for the
test put so cruelly upon it. He faltered and sank heavily into a chair,
while the stern man watching him, gave no signs of responsive sympathy
or even interest, only a patient and icy-tempered resolve.

"I cannot live in uncertainty;" such were finally Mr. Challoner's
words. "What you have to say concerns Edith?" The pause he made was
infinitesimal in length, but it was long enough for a quick disclaimer.
But no such disclaimer came. "I will hear it," came in reluctant finish.

Mr. Brotherson took a step forward. His manner was as cold as the heart
which lay like a stone in his bosom.

"Will you pardon me if I ask you to rise?" said he. "I have my
weaknesses too." (He gave no sign of them.) "I cannot speak down from
such a height to the man I am bound to hurt."

As if answering to the constraint of a will quite outside his own, Mr.
Challoner rose. Their heads were now more nearly on a level and Mr.
Brotherson's voice remained low, as he proceeded, with quiet intensity.

"There has been a time--and it may exist yet, God knows--when you
thought me in some unknown and secret way the murderer of your daughter.
I do not quarrel with the suspicion; it was justified, Mr. Challoner. I
did kill your daughter, and with this hand! I can no longer deny it."

The wretched father swayed, following the gesture of the hand thus held
out; but he did not fall, nor did a sound leave his lips.

Brotherson went coldly on:

"I did it because I regarded her treatment of my suit as insolent. I
have no mercy for any such display of intolerance on the part of the
rich and the fortunate. I hated her for it; I hated her class, herself
and all she stood for. To strike the dealer of such a hurt I felt to be
my right. Though a man of small beginnings and of a stock which such
as you call common, I have a pride which few of your blood can equal.
I could not work, or sleep or eat with such a sting