from her. Now, in the face of the catastrophe, she felt
herself overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the necessity for instant action was
imperative.

She went back into the house, and rang for her maid to take the message
to Rudd. Then, she dressed hurriedly for the ride to her father's house.
Her hands were trembling, and tears streamed down her cheeks. At
intervals, she muttered in rage against her father, whom at this moment
she positively hated.

For that matter, old Herresford, by reason of his unscrupulous operations
in augmenting his enormous fortune, was one of the most cordially hated
men in the country. Of late years, however, he had abandoned aggressive
undertakings, and rested content with the wealth he had already acquired.
Invalidism had been the cause of this change. The result of it had been
to develop certain miserly instincts in the man until they became the
dominant force of his life. By reason of this stinginess, his daughter
was made to suffer so much that she abominated her father. It was a long
time now since he had ceased to be a familiar figure in the world. For
some years, he had been confined to his bedchamber at Asherton Hall, his
magnificent estate on the Hudson. There, from a window, he could survey a
great part of his gardens, and watch his gardeners at their labors. With
a pair of field-glasses, he could search every wooded knoll of the park
for a half-mile to the river, in the hope of catching some fellow idling,
whom he could dismiss. In his senseless economies, he had discharged
servant after servant, until now his stately house was woefully ill-kept,
and even his favorite gardens were undermanned.

On this morning of his daughter's meeting with the sheriff's officer, he
was sitting up in his carved ebony bedstead. A black skull-cap was drawn
over his little head, and the long, white hair fell to his shoulders,
where it curled up at the ends. His sunken eyes gleamed like a hawk's,
and his dry, parchment skin was stretched tightly over the prominent
bones. His nose was hooked, and his lips sunken over toothless gums--for
he would not afford false teeth. His hands were as small as a woman's,
but claw-like.

On a round table by his bed stood the field-glasses with which he watched
his gardeners, and woe betide man who permitted a single leaf to lie on
the perfect lawns, which stretched away on the plateau before the
house.

The chamber in which the bed was set was lofty and bare. A few costly