my
father's memory.' What do you mean, Dr. Franklin? You have gone too
far not to speak plainly. Do you dare--are you insinuating, that there
was something disgraceful, dishonorable about my father's insolvency?
You have been my spiritual adviser nearly all my life, and when you
tell me that my father was a bankrupt, that the knowledge comes to you
from his best friends and will be corroborated by his attorneys, I am
forced to believe you. But if you attempt to convince me that my
father's honor--his good name--is involved, then I tell you that it is
not true! Either a terrible mistake has been made or a deliberate
conspiracy is on foot--the blackest sort of conspiracy, to defame the
dead!"

"My dear!" The minister raised his hands in shocked amazement. "You
are beside yourself, you don't know what you are saying! I have
repeated to you only that which was told to me, and in practically the
same words. As to the possibility of a conspiracy, you will realize
the absurdity of such an idea when I deliver to you the message with
which I was charged. Your father's partner in many enterprises, the
Honorable Bertie Rockamore, together with President Mallowe, of the
Street Railways, and Mr. Carlis, the great politician, promised some
little time ago that they would stand in _loco parentis_ toward you
should your natural protector be removed. They desire me to tell you
that you need have no anxiety for the immediate future. You will be
cared for and provided with all that you have been accustomed to, just
as if your father were alive."

"Indeed? They are most kind--" Anita spoke quietly enough, but with a
curiously dry, controlled note in her voice which reminded the
minister of her father's tones, and for some inexplicable reason he
felt vaguely uncomfortable. "Please say to them that I do sincerely
appreciate their magnanimity, their charity, toward one who has no
right, legal or moral, to claim protection or care from them. But now,
Dr. Franklin, may I beg that you will forgive me if I retire? The news
you have brought me of course has been a terrible shock. I must have
time to collect my thoughts, to realize the sudden, terrible change
this revelation has made in my whole life. I am deeply grateful to
you, to my father's three associates, but I can say no more now."

"Of course, dear child." Dr. Franklin patted her hand perfunctorily
and arose with ill-concealed relief that the interview was at an end.
He could not under