s, and you came here as a friend of my
father. You have drawn Edward Raymer into the entanglement and helped
him with the stolen money. In every way you have sought to make it more
and more impossible for me to give information against you--and you have
succeeded. I can't do it now, without facing a scandal that would never
die in a small place like this, and without bringing trouble and ruin
upon a family of our nearest friends. And that is why I sent for you
to-day; and why I say you owe me something."

Griswold was sitting up again, and he had recovered some small measure
of self-possession.

"I certainly owe you many apologies, at least," he said, ironically. "I
have really been doing you a great injustice, Miss Farnham--a very grave
injustice, though not exactly of the kind you mention. I think I have
been misapprehending you from the beginning. How long have you known me
as the man who is wanted in New Orleans?"

"A long time; though I tried not to believe it at first. It seemed
incredible that the man I had spoken to on the _Belle Julie_ would come
here and put me in such a false position."

"Good heavens!" he broke out; "is your position all you have been
thinking of? Is that the only reason why you haven't set the dogs on
me?"

"It is the chief reason why I couldn't afford to do anything more than I
have done. Goodness knows, I have tried in every way to warn you, even
to pointing out the man who is shadowing you. To do it, I have had to
deceive my father. I have been hoping that you would understand and go
away."

"Wait a minute," he commanded. "Let me get it straight; you still
believe that the thing I did was a criminal thing?"

"We needn't go into that part of it again," she returned, with a sort of
placid impatience. "Once I thought that there might be some way in which
you had justified yourself to yourself, but now----"

"That isn't the point," he interrupted roughly. "What I want to know is
this: Do you still believe it is a crime?"

"Of course, it is a crime; I know it, you know it, all the world knows
it."

Again he sat back and took time to gather up a few of the scattered
shards and fragments. When he spoke it was to say: "I think the debt is
on the other side, Miss Charlotte; I think you owe me something. You
probably won't understand when I say that you have robbed me of a very
precious thing--my faith in the ultimate goodness of a good woman. You
believe--you have always believed--th