both at your house and office,
not more than an hour ago."

"I got the message sent to the house," he said. "It came as a great
relief." He paused for a moment, looking in her eyes, which were
raised to his own appealingly. "Why did you run away?--and how did you
do it?" he asked her. "I didn't know what in the world to think or do."

Her eyes were lowered.

"I had to--I mean, I simply obeyed an impulse," she confessed.

In an almost involuntary outburst she added: "I am in very great
trouble. There is no one in the world but you that can give me any
help."

All the pain she had caused him was forgotten in the joy of that
instant. How he longed to take her in his arms and fold her in
security against his breast! And he dared not even be tender.

"I am trying to help you, Dorothy," he said, "but I was utterly
dumfounded, there in the crush on the bridge. Where did you go?"

"I ran along and was helped to escape the traffic," she explained.
"Then I soon got a car, with my mind made up to come over here just as
soon as I could. This is the home of my stepbrother's wife--Mrs.
Foster Durgin. I had to come over and--and warn--I mean, I had to
come, and so I came."

He had felt her disappearance had nothing to do with the vanishing of
the chauffeur. Her statement confirmed his belief.

"Durgin?" Garrison repeated. "Didn't some Durgin, a nephew of Hardy,
claim the body, up at Branchville?"

Dorothy was pale again, but resolute.

"Yes--Paul. He's Foster's brother."

"You told me you had neither brothers nor sisters," Garrison reminded
her a little sternly. "These were not forgotten?"

"They are stepbrothers only--by marriage. I thought I could leave them
out," she explained, flushing as she tried to meet his gaze. "Please
don't think I meant to deceive you very much."

"It was a technical truth," he told her; "but isn't it time you told me
everything? You ran off before I could even reply to something you
appeared to wish to know. You----"

"But you don't suspect me?" she interrupted, instantly reverting to the
question she had put before, in that moment of her impulse to run. "I
couldn't bear it if I thought you did!"

"If I replied professionally, I should say I don't know what to think,"
he said. "The whole affair is complicated. As a matter of fact, I
cannot seem to suspect you of anything wrong, but you've got to help me
clear it as fast as I can."

She met his gaze steadily, for