I started wrong with uncle. He never
liked my father nor any of my father's family. His treatment of his
wife was infamous. My poor governor was one of those easy-going fellows
who was always in trouble, and it was always John Minute's job to get
him out. I don't like talking about him--" He hesitated.

She nodded.

"I know," she said sympathetically.

"Father was not the rotter that Uncle John thinks he was. He had his
good points. He was careless, and he drank much more than was good for
him, but all the scrapes he fell into were due to this latter failing."

The girl knew the story of Doctor Merrill. It had been sketched briefly
but vividly by John Minute. She knew also some of those scrapes which
had involved Doctor Merrill's ruin, material and moral.

"Frank," she said, "if I can help you in any way I would do it."

"You can help me absolutely," said the young man quietly, "by marrying
me."

She gasped.

"When?" she asked, startled.

"Now, next week; at any rate, soon." He smiled, and, crossing to her,
caught her hand in his.

"May, dear, you know I love you. You know there is nothing in the world
I would not do for you, no sacrifice that I would not make."

She shook her head.

"You must give me some time to think about this, Frank," she said.

"Don't go," he begged. "You cannot know how urgent is my need of you.
Uncle John has told you a great deal about me, but has he told you
this--that my only hope of independence--independence of his millions
and his influence--you cannot know how widespread or pernicious that
influence is," he said, with an unaccustomed passion in his voice, "lies
in my marriage before my twenty-fourth birthday?"

"Frank!"

"It is true. I cannot tell you any more, but John Minute knows. If I am
married within the next ten days"--he snapped his fingers--"that for
his millions. I am independent of his legacies, independent of his
patronage."

She stared at him, open-eyed.

"You never told me this before."

He shook his head a little despairingly.

"There are some things I can never tell you, May, and some things which
you can never know till we are married. I only ask you to trust me."

"But suppose," she faltered, "you are not married within ten days, what
will happen?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"'I am John's liege man of life and limb and of earthly regard,'" he
quoted flippantly. "I shall wait hopefully for the only release that can
come, the release which