still
turned from her. "You must have been mistaken; perhaps you even
dreamed it all." Anita Lawton gave an impatient gesture.

"I am not quite the child you think me, Ramon. Could that man have
meant to insinuate that father in his own advancement had trod upon
and ruined some one else, as financiers have always done? Could he
have meant that father had driven this man and his wife to despair? I
cannot bear to think of it. I try to thrust it from my thoughts a
dozen times a day, but that groan from father's lips sounded so much
like one of remorse that hideous ideas come beating in on my brain.
Was my father like other rich men, Ramon? He did not live for money,
although the successful manipulation of it was almost a passion with
him. He lived for me, always for me, and the good that he would be
able to do in this world."

"Of course he did, darling. No one who knew him could imagine
otherwise for a moment." He hesitated, and then added, "No one else
discovered this man's presence in the house that night? You have told
no one? Not the doctor, or the coroner, or Dr. Franklin?"

"Oh, no; if I had it would have been necessary for me to have told
what I overheard. Besides, it could have had no direct bearing on
daddy's death; that was caused by heart-disease, as you say. But I
believe, and I always will believe, that that man killed father, as
surely, as inevitably, as if he had stabbed or shot or poisoned him!
Why did he come like a thief in the night? Father's integrity, his
honor, were known to all the world. Why did that reference to this
Herbert and his wife cause him such pain?"

"I don't know, dear; I have no more idea than you. If you really,
really overheard that conversation, as you seem convinced you did, you
did well in keeping it to yourself. Let that hour remain buried in
your thoughts, as in your father's grave. Only rest assured that
whatever it is, it casts no stain upon your father's good name or his
memory." He rose and gathered her into his arms. "I must go now,
Anita; I'll come again to-morrow. You are quite sure that you will not
accept my mother's invitation? I really think it would be better for
you."

She looked deeply into his eyes, then drew herself gently from his
clasp. "Not yet. Thank her for me, Ramon, with all my heart, but I
will not leave my father's house just yet, even for a few days. I am
sure that I shall be happier here." He kissed her, and left the room.
She stood where he ha