t if the young girl's
health and reason were to be spared, her anxiety must be allayed.
Courageous and self-controlled as she had been through all the grief
and added trouble which besieged her on every hand, the keen
insight of the detective warned him that she was nearing the
breaking-point. If she fully realized the blow which threatened
her in the sudden disappearance of her lover, together with the
sinister events which had immediately preceded it, she would be
crushed to the earth.

"You must try to rest." Blaine rose and motioned toward the window
through which the cold rays of the wintry sun were stealing and
putting the orange glow of the electric lights to shame. "See. It is
morning and you have had no sleep."

"But you must not go just yet, Mr. Blaine! I cannot rest until I know
who that man was whose voice I heard over your telephone this morning.
What did he mean? He said that his wife committed suicide; that he
himself had been ruined! And all through my father and you! It cannot
be true, of course; but I must know to what he referred!"

"I will tell you. It is best that you should know the truth. Your
father was absolutely innocent in the matter, but his enemies and
yours might find it expedient to spread fake reports which would only
add to your sorrow. You know, you must remember since your earliest
childhood, how every one came to your father with their perplexities
and troubles and how benevolently they were received, how wisely
advised, how generously aided. Not only bankers and financiers in the
throes of a panic, but men and women in all walks of life came to him
for counsel and relief."

"I know. I know!" Anita whispered with bowed head, the quick tears of
tender memory starting in her eyes.

"Such a one who came to him for advice in her distress was the wife of
Herbert Armstrong. She was a good woman, but through sheer ignorance
of evil she had committed a slight indiscretion, nothing more than the
best of women might be led into at any time. We need not go into
details. It is enough to tell you that certain unscrupulous persons
had her in their power and were blackmailing her. She fell their
victim through the terror of being misunderstood, and when she could
no longer accede to their demands she came to your father, her
husband's friend, for advice. Herbert Armstrong was insanely jealous
of his wife, and in your father's efforts to help her he unfortunately
incurred the unjust suspicions