ay 'no,' and not tell you of a thing that
explains, a thing that must make you wish you hadn't asked me that."

"But it does not make me wish anything of the kind, Barbara. It makes me
more eager than ever to win you, in order that I may devote my life to
the loving task of making you forget the horror of this thing. Oh,
Barbara! I never loved you half so madly as I love you now. And you love
me. I know it, but you must say it. You love me, Barbara! Say it! Say
it--now!"

The girl hesitated for no more than a moment, while her whole body
quivered.

"God help me!" she said then, "I do love you! I love you too well to let
you link your life with mine, to let you take upon yourself the shadow
of my disgrace."

"But you have no disgrace. You are innocent. The fault is not yours that
your father betrayed his trust a score of years ago--before you were
born."

"Listen!" she interrupted with passionate determination. "If you were to
marry me I should become the mother of your children. That would make
them the grandchildren of a Thief."

The two were standing now.

"I want you to sit down while I answer you, Barbara," said Duncan, with
almost unimaginable tenderness in his tone. "No, not in that
straight-backed chair, for I want you to listen to all I have to say,
and to be at ease while you listen. Sit here," pushing an easy chair
forward, "sit here where you can see my face as I speak. I want you to
see in my eyes the sincerity of my soul."

Barbara obeyed and listened.

"I was born and brought up," he said, "in a region where all the old
traditions had full sway over the minds of men and women, enslaving
them. During four years of war I learned much, but I unlearned far more.
I learned to look facts in the face, and to accept them at their just
value. I learned to judge of others and of their worth by what they are,
not by what their fathers or grandfathers may have been. I unlearned
the false teaching of tradition that aught else than personal character
and personal conduct goes to the making up of any human being's account
with his fellow man. I had a true democracy forced upon me when I saw
men of the humblest extraction winning high place for themselves, and
being set to command men of the loftiest lineage--all because of
personal character and fitness, and in spite of their lack of caste. No
sane man can contemplate the character and career of Mr. Lincoln, for
example, without finding in it an object lesson