hese surroundings, if my hypothesis
were correct, I would have believed that you were her father, and that
grief from bereavement or separation, had caused you to choose this
life for yourself and her."

Jack had again risen and was slowly pacing the room. Miss Gladden
could read no sign of displeasure in his face, though she detected
indications of some powerful emotion, and of acute suffering. He
seemed battling with old-time memories, and when at last he seated
himself and began speaking, there was a strange pathos vibrating
through the forced calmness of his voice, and the piercing eyes, now
looking so kindly into her own, had in their depths such hopeless
sadness, that Miss Gladden's heart was stirred by a pity deeper than
she had ever known, for she instinctively felt that she was in the
presence of some great, despairing sorrow.

With a smile of rare sweetness and beauty, he said: "Your candor and
frankness deserve confidence in return, and I will give it so far as
it is within my power to do so, and yet I fear that you will be
disappointed. Your surmises are incorrect in many respects, and yet
contain a great deal of truth, and I will try, so far as possible, to
be as frank with you as you have been with me. In the first place, I
must say to you, that regarding Lyle's true parentage, whether or not
she is the child of the Mavericks, I know, positively, nothing more
than do you, yourself."

He smiled as he noted Miss Gladden's look of astonishment, and
continued:

"Like you, I have my suspicions that she is not their child, and have
had them since first seeing her, years ago. As in your case, my
suspicions long ago changed to conviction, and my convictions are
probably even deeper than yours, for the reason, that in form, in
feature, in voice and manner, in every expression and gesture," his
voice trembled for an instant, but he controlled it, "she is the exact
counterpart of another; some one whom I knew in a life as remote, as
far from this as it is possible to conceive. But I have no direct
proof, not a shadow of tangible evidence with which I could confront
Maverick and denounce him with having stolen the child, and, knowing
him as I do, I know that for Lyle's sake, until I have some such
proof, it were better to remain silent."

"Pardon me for interrupting you," Miss Gladden exclaimed, "but that is
a contingency that never entered my mind, that Lyle had been stolen
from her parents! That is far worse