d
for home immediately. Now tell me everything exactly as it happened."

She listened with wide-open eyes to the tale which Sahwah, assisted by
the other three, poured out excitedly.

At the mention of Veronica's mysterious errands from the house, which
had brought suspicion down upon her, Nyoda suddenly turned white and
clutched the newel post for support.

"Oh, if I had only known!" she cried wildly. "If I had only been here!
Oh, the poor, poor child, why didn't she tell?" Nyoda sank down on the
stairs and buried her face in her hands, while the Winnebagos stood
around with wondering, startled faces.

Then she looked up at the girls and began to speak.

"Girls," she said in an awed tone, "I simply can't find words to tell
you what Veronica has done. No one could express in seven languages the
depth of her loyalty to a friend. She has kept a promise of silence
about a certain matter at a cost to herself that surpasses belief. But
here and now I absolve her from that promise, and propose to tell you
the whole matter which has so puzzled and tormented you with its
mystery, although it is a matter I urgently wished to keep secret.

"You probably do not know that my husband has a younger brother,
Clement, who was a brilliant scholar and a fine musician. His health had
always been frail, and he overstudied in college, with the result that
in the middle of his junior year he broke down altogether and was ill
for a long time. Worry about his condition finally affected his mind and
he became quite melancholy at times and mentally unbalanced. It was
nothing permanent, the doctors said, and the mental trouble would pass
away if he regained his health, but Clement was morbidly sensitive about
it and was terribly afraid people would find it out and consider him
crazy all the rest of his life, and that his career would be ruined by
it

"His distress was so keen that my husband brought him to a little
cottage here on the outskirts of Oakwood that stands far back from one
of the unfrequented roads, almost hidden by the trees, and established
him there with a young doctor friend and an old housekeeper who had been
in the family for years and had looked after Clem since he was a
youngster. None of his friends knew where he was nor what was the matter
with him, so he was safe from the publicity he feared. He began to
improve with the quiet outdoor life he led, but still there were times
when he grew so melancholy that they feare