me of those great old fellows. I learned that he is a better
painter and a greater man than people over here know."

"Mother knew it--all the time."

"Ah, yes, your mother! Would you like to go there, Betty? Then I'll
take you. We'll be married right away, won't we, dear?"

"You know, Richard, I believe I would be perfectly--absolutely--terribly
happy--if--if I could only get over being mad at your uncle. He was so
stubborn, he was just wicked. I hated him--I--I hated him so, and now
it seems as if I had got used to hating him and couldn't stop."

She had been so brave and had not once given way, but now at the
thought of all the bitterness and the fight of her will against that
of the old man, she sobbed in his arms. Her whole frame shook and he
gathered her close and comforted her. "He--he--he was always
saying--saying--"

"Never mind now what he was saying, dear. Listen."

"I--I--I--am afraid--I can never see him--or--or look at him
again--I--I--hate him so!"

"No, no. Don't hate him. Any one would have done the same in his place
who believed as firmly as he did what he believed."

"B--b--but he didn't need to believe it."

"You see he had known through that Dane man--or whatever he is--from
the detective--all I told you that night--how could he help it? I
believed Peter was dead--we all did--you did. He had brooded over it
and slept upon it--no wonder he refused even to look at Peter. If you
had seen Uncle Elder there in the court room after the people had
gone, if you had seen him then, Betty, you would never hate him
again."

"All the same, if--if--you hadn't come home when you did,--and the
law of Wisconsin allowed of hanging--he would have had him,
Peter Junior--he would have had his own son hanged,--and been
glad--glad--because he would have thought he was hanging you. I do
hate--"

"No, no. And as he very tersely said--if all had been as it seemed,
and it had been me--trying to take the place of Peter Junior--I would
have deserved hanging--now wouldn't I, after all the years when Uncle
Elder had been good to me for his sister's sake?"

"That's it--for his sister's sake--n--n--not for yours, always himself
and his came first. And then it wouldn't have been so. Even if it were
so, it wouldn't have been so--I mean--I wouldn't have believed
it--because it couldn't have been you and been so--"

"Darling little Irish Betty! What a fine daughter you will be to my
Irish Dad! Oh, my dear! my dear!"