e, no one here knows her real name'," she
read, "'and it wouldn't mean anything to them if they did, but I
spotted her at once and later events have only proved the truth of my
suspicions. She is the undoubted owner of almost boundless wealth and
when I have gone after her and won her consent----'"

"Stop!" Willa clapped her hands to her ears. "I will not listen to
one more word! It is a lie, I tell you! A lie!"

"There isn't any more," Angie announced with a sly grimace. "That is
the bottom of the page, but it ought to be enough for you."

"Kearn Thode never wrote a word of it!" exclaimed Willa passionately.
"I would not believe you if you swore it from now till you die! Go,
before I make you!"

"Oh, I'm going." Angie shrugged, and the letter fluttered from her
fingers to the floor. "I've no desire for a disgraceful brawl, I
assure you! Of course, I am not familiar with Kearn Thode's
handwriting, but I have proof enough to satisfy me that the letter is
his. If you marry him now, you will have bought him with your eyes
open and have no one but yourself to blame if you're not pleased with
your bargain! I have done my duty anyway, my dear cousin. Good-night."

Her footsteps died away down the hall, and Willa dropped into a low
chair before the hearth, covering her face with her hands. It was Just
a trick of Wiley's, of course! She would not let her gaze stray to
that tell-tale sheet of white paper upon the floor, and yet something
seemed to draw her eyes to it with an almost physical strength.

Wiley must have written it himself and put it in Angie's hands to work
what mischief she might with it. There could be no harm in one glance
at it; a glance which would prove instantly its falseness, just as she
knew it in her heart to be at best a forgery.

Slowly Willa rose and step by step made her way to where the letter
lay. She made no effort to touch it at first, but it had fallen with
the written side uppermost and gradually as she stared down at it the
scorn in her face gave way to wonder and then despair.

The brief note she had received from Kearn Thode, after he had thrashed
Wiley at the club, was engraved deep in her thoughts with every line
distinct and the characters on the paper before her eyes were so
similar in every detail that it seemed impossible for them not to have
been fashioned by the same hand.

With grief and horror surging in her heart, Willa rushed to the little
drawer of her