e stooped the mischief; and I
didn't! I can never outlive that."

"I know," said the general relentlessly, "that you have never attempted
any defence. That has been to your credit with me. It inclined me to
overlook your unwarranted course in writing to my daughter, when you
told her you would never see her again. What did you expect me to think,
after that, of your coming back to see her? Or didn't you expect me to
know it?"

"I expected you to know it; I knew she would tell you. But I don't
excuse that, either. It was acting a lie to come back. All I can say is
that I had to see her again for one last time."

"And to make sure that it was to be the last time, you offered yourself
to her."

"I couldn't help doing that."

"I don't say you could. I don't judge the facts at all. I leave them
altogether to you; and you shall say what a man in my position ought to
say to such a man as you have shown yourself."

"No, I will say." The door into the adjoining room was flung open, and
Agatha flashed in from it.

Her father looked coldly at her impassioned face. "Have you been
listening?" he asked.

"I have been hearing--"

"Oh!" As nearly as a man could, in bed, General Triscoe shrugged.

"I suppose I had, a right to be in my own room. I couldn't help hearing;
and I was perfectly astonished at you, papa, the cruel way you went on,
after all you've said about Mr. Stoller, and his getting no more than he
deserved."

"That doesn't justify me," Burnamy began, but she cut him short almost
as severely as she--had dealt with her father.

"Yes, it does! It justifies you perfectly! And his wanting you to
falsify the whole thing afterwards, more than justifies you."

Neither of the men attempted anything in reply to her casuistry; they
both looked equally posed by it, for different reasons; and Agatha went
on as vehemently as before, addressing herself now to one and now to the
other.

"And besides, if it didn't justify you, what you have done yourself
would; and your never denying it, or trying to excuse it, makes it the
same as if you hadn't done it, as far as you are concerned; and that is
all I care for." Burnamy started, as if with the sense of having heard
something like this before, and with surprise at hearing it now; and she
flushed a little as she added tremulously, "And I should never, never
blame you for it, after that; it's only trying to wriggle out of things
which I despise, and you've never done that. A