s something that will destroy my mother's confidence in me. I
disobeyed her. I did what she would never have let me do if she had
known. I--I used to meet Arthur in the driveway back by the barns. I had
a key made to the little side door so that I could do it. I used to meet
him late. I would get up out of bed when mother was asleep, and dress
myself and sit at the window until I heard him come up the street. Then
I would steal down and catch him on his way to the stables. I--I had a
good reason for this, Elwood. He knew I would be there, and it brought
him home earlier and not quite so--so full of liquor. If he was very bad,
he would come up the other way and I would sit waiting and crying till
three o'clock struck, then creep into my bed and try to sleep. Nights and
nights I have done this. Nothing else in life seemed so important, for it
did hold him back a little. But not so much as if he had loved me more.
He loved me some, but he couldn't have loved me very much, or he would
have sent me some word, or seen me, if but for a minute, since Adelaide's
death. And he hasn't, he hasn't! and that makes it harder for me to
acknowledge the watch I kept on him, and how I know he never went through
our grounds for the second time that night. He went once, about nine, but
not later. I am certain of this, for I was looking out for him till three
in the morning. If he came back and then returned afterwards to town, it
was through his own street, and that takes so long, he would never have
been able to get to the place they said he did at the time they have
agreed upon. Oh! I have studied every word of the case, to see if what I
had to tell would help him any. Father cannot bear to see me with a
newspaper in my hand, and mother comes and takes them out of my room; but
I have managed to read every word since they accused him of being at the
club-house that night, and I know that he needs some one to come out
boldly in his cause, and I want to be that some one, and I will be, too,
whatever happens to me, if--if I must," she faintly added.

I was dumb, but not from lack of interest, God knows, or from
unsympathetic feeling for this brave-hearted girl. The significance of
the situation was what held me speechless. Here was help for Arthur
without my braving all the horrors of Carmel's downfall by any impulsive
act of my own. For a moment, hope in one burning and renewing flame
soared high in my breast. I was willing to accept my releas