e realized with astonishment
from what a height she had fallen, how greatly he had respected
her, how warmly liked her. What she now destroyed had been more
important than he had guessed.

Simple masculine indignation rose within him: she was to have been
his sister. If she had been unable to stifle this misplaced love
of hers, could she not at least have kept it to herself? Laura,
the self-respecting! No; she offered it--offered it to her
sister's betrothed. She had written that he should "never, never
know it"; that when she was "cured" she would burn the ledger. She
had not burned it! There were inconsistencies in plenty in the
pitiful screed, but these were the wildest--and the cheapest. In
talk, she had urged him to "keep trying," for Cora, and now the
sick-minded creature sent him this record. She wanted him to know.
Then what else was it but a plea? "I love you. Let Cora go. Take
me."

He began to walk up and down, wondering what was to be done. After
a time, he picked up the book gingerly, set it upon a shelf in a
dark corner, and went for a walk outdoors. The night air seemed
better than that of the room that held the ledger.

At the corner a boy, running, passed him. It was Hedrick Madison,
but Hedrick did not recognize Richard, nor was his mind at that
moment concerned with Richard's affairs; he was on an errand of
haste to Doctor Sloane. Mr. Madison had wakened from a heavy
slumber unable to speak, his condition obviously much worse.

Hedrick returned in the doctor's car, and then hung uneasily about
the door of the sick-room until Laura came out and told him to go
to bed. In the morning, his mother did not appear at the breakfast
table, Cora was serious and quiet, and Laura said that he need not
go to school that day, though she added that the doctor thought
their father would get "better." She looked wan and hollow-eyed:
she had not been to bed, but declared that she would rest after
breakfast. Evidently she had not missed her ledger; and Hedrick
watched her closely, a pleasurable excitement stirring in his
breast.

She did not go to her room after the meal; the house was cold,
possessing no furnace, and, with Hedrick's assistance, she carried
out the ashes from the library grate, and built a fire there. She
had just lighted it, and the kindling was beginning to crackle,
glowing rosily over her tired face, when the bell rang.

"Will you see who it is, please, Hedrick?"

He went with alacrity, an