time that Jonas saw him leaning
over the table with the glass in his hand and the moment when you and
your sister entered this room in face of your father's falling form. He
must have been present, therefore, when your father came from his
bedroom, if not when he drank the fatal glass; why, then, did he take
such pains to escape, if actuated by no keener emotion than horror at a
father's suicide?"

"I do not know, I cannot say; but that he himself put the poison in the
decanter I will not believe. A thief is not necessarily a parricide.
Even if he were in great straits and needed the money my father's will
undoubtedly leaves him, he would think twice before he ran the risk of
making Carrie and myself his natural enemies. No, no, if my father has
died from poison, it was through a mistake, or by the administration of
his own hand, never by that of Joe Benson's."

"Ah, and has anybody here present dared to charge _him_ with such a
deed!"

With a start both gentlemen turned; an accusing spirit stood before
them.

"Edith!" broke from Hartley's lips. "This is no place for you! Go back!
go back!"

"My place is where the name of Joseph Benson is uttered," she proudly
answered, "whether the words be for good or evil. I am his betrothed
wife as you know, and again I ask, who has dared to utter an
insinuation, however light, that he, the tender son and generous
brother, has had a criminal hand in his father's awful death?"

"No one! no one!" essayed Hartley, taking her hand with a weak attempt
at soothing. "I was but saying----"

But she turned from him with a gesture of repugnance, and taking a step
toward the doctor, looked him entreatingly in the face. "You have not
been expressing doubts of Mr. Benson's youngest son, because he happened
to wear a disguise and be present when Mr. Benson fell? You do not know
Joe, sir; nobody in this town knows him. His own father was ignorant of
his worth; but we know him, Uncle Joe and I, and we know he could never
do a deed that could stamp him either as a dishonorable or a criminal
man. If Mr. Benson has died from poison, I should as soon think _this_
man had a hand in it as his poor exiled brother." And in a burst of
uncontrollable wrath and indignation, she pointed, with a sudden
gesture, at the startled Hartley.

But that worthy, though evidently taken aback, was not to be caught so
easily.

"Edith, you forget yourself," said he, with studied self-possession.
"The horrors of