t a thing, know it perfectly, and cannot make
it seem so to another? Don't let it be so with you, father. Only listen
to me." Mr. Royal did listen attentively as she went over the points of
her story again. Had she been talking of some matter of business, her
inexperience and a something about her that people were apt to call
unpracticalness, might have decided him against giving any unusual
weight to a speech like Edmonson's. But here the weight of her
character, and of impressions stronger than she could put into words
told. He saw, too, that she was looking at the matter with the accuracy
and judgment that it usually takes years of training to learn. This,
added to her own intensity, gave a convincing force to her words. He
admitted to himself that the affair had an ugly look.

At last Elizabeth paused. She drew a little nearer her father, and laid
her hand upon the table beside him. "I want you to advise me;" she said;
then, "What must I do?"

In the impossibility of any answer he felt a sudden rebound from the
force of her words. "I don't see that there is anything for you to do,
or for anybody," he said. "How can you act upon a thing that is purely
an assumption, and not only that, but a thing so wicked that it is a
cruelty to a man to imagine it about him? I can't believe that it's
necessary to do anything, for I can't bring myself to feel as you do.
Are you very sure that you have not fancied a part of this?"

"Father!" cried Elizabeth, "I wish I had, But look at it." And she went
again over the grounds of her suspicions, giving with a clearness that
he was proud of, the indications that she had seen of the bent of
Edmonson's will and the evidences of his headstrong character, linking
one trifling act or word to another, until she had welded a chain so
strong that Mr. Royal felt a thrill run through him as he listened, for
she awoke in him her own belief and something of her own anxiety to be
doing. So that when she had finished, instead of repeating that it was
not necessary to do anything, he asked whom she had thought of as the
person to give the warning to Archdale.

She was about to speak, then checked herself, hesitated, and at last
said, "I want you to advise me."

"Um!" said Mr. Royal, and was silent. He was somewhat disappointed that
she, so powerful in statement, should have no suggestion to offer in a
matter that puzzled him the more, the more he thought of it. Such a
warning would not be easy to