was the one promise I
made to Adoniah."

"Adoniah!" exclaimed the girl, her eyes growing wide.

"Yes. I did not mean to speak his name, but it can do no harm."

"Why,--that was the first name----Is he the same man Harold is trying to
find?"

"I'm sorry to say that he is."

"The one whose last name was Phillips?"

"Yes. But why do you take such interest in him?"

"And he is a brother of Uncle Josiah?"

"A half-brother," he replied, showing that he was becoming nettled.

Elizabeth rose from her stool, and crossed over to the door that led
into the hall. She did not seem to sense just what she was doing till
her hand touched the cold knob. With a start, as though wakened from a
bad dream, she turned about and faced her father.

"Father,"--her breath came in short gasps,--"you have no right to keep
your word to such a man as you say this Phillips person is. There is
but one thing for us to do: go at once to Uncle Josiah. I'm certain he
can get enough money to pay the interest, if that is what you want."

"But, Beth, I cannot do that. My business honor is at stake, and I must
permit the law to take its course."

"You may be right about the legal part. But how about the moral side? Is
there not something at stake there, too?"

"It does seem a moral injustice, but I cannot help that. It is hard, for
Josiah will see only the moral side of it, and the people of the village
will think it unjust. Josiah may find out the facts, that is, enough of
them to prove to his mind that I can't foreclose on his property because
of the little loan. What more he may discover, I cannot even guess. It
will depend somewhat on the lawyer who advises him. But no matter what
he discovers, my conscience will be clear in that I did not break faith
with his renegade brother."

"What right have you to keep faith with him?"

"My little Beth, please do not question my action," he entreated. "It
will all be clear to you some day. I'm willing to wait for my
vindication, but I must know that my little girl trusts her daddy to do
what is right. If you don't, it will kill me!"

There was such deep pathos in his voice that she recrossed the room. She
laid her hand on the arm of her father's chair.

"After all, Father, I am only a girl, and know very little of law and
business. Forgive me if I have hurt you. I don't see why you feel as you
do about carrying this thing through at so great a sacrifice of lifelong
friendships. But I believe th