ur of us, including myself, on one side, and your father on
the other. Supposing it was in your power to help either, and your
interests lay with us," he added, speaking with a certain meaning in his
tone--"well, to cut it short, how should you feel about it?"

"You mean," she said slowly, "would my filial devotion outweigh--other
considerations?"

He looked at her admiringly.

"You are a marvel, Miss Duge," he said. "That is exactly what I do
mean."

She leaned back in her chair for a moment, and looked thoughtfully
through the little cloud of cigarette smoke into the face of the man
opposite to her.

"You have probably heard," she said, "that my father turned me out of
his house."

"There was a rumour--" he began hesitatingly.

"Oh! it was no rumour," she interrupted. "He took care that every one
knew that I had given Norris Vine some information about his doings in
Canadian Pacifies. If I were back at home, which I never shall be, I
would do the same thing again. I have lived with my father since I came
back from Europe, and I know what manner of a man he is. I think," she
continued, looking away from him, and speaking more thoughtfully, "that
I was just like the average girl when I came back to New York. I lived
with my father for two or three years, and--well--it would be a severe
lesson for any one. However, this doesn't matter. And I am not
over-sensitive. If you have anything to say to me, say it."

"I will," he answered. "We have an idea that at any moment there may be
war between us and your father. I think that the odds would be very much
in our favour but for one thing. Your father has a paper which we
foolishly enough all signed one night, which places us practically in
his power. If that paper were given to the Press, we should all of us be
ruined men--I mean so far as prestige and position are concerned.
Further, I am not sure that we should not have to leave the country
altogether."

She looked at him in wonder. "Whatever made you sign such a paper?" she
asked.

He shook his head.

"Heaven knows!" he answered. "We were a little mad. We did not mean to
leave it in your father's charge, however. That is why this illness of
his is so embarrassing to us. We can't help an idea that it is to keep
out of our way for a few days, and to retain possession of that wretched
document, that he is lying by. If, on the other hand, his illness is
genuine, and he were, to put it bluntly, to die, that paper