s
sympathy for him. He glanced at her sharply, with stern, dark eyes.

"I have to thank you for coming, but I am going to talk plainly," he said.
"You connived at the meetings between my daughter and the rascally
adventurer who has married her?"

"They are married?" exclaimed Miss Schuyler in her eagerness, and the next
moment felt the blood rise to her face as she realized that she had
blundered in admitting any doubt upon the subject. "I mean, of course,
that I wondered whether Mr. Grant could have arranged it so soon."

"You seem to attach a good deal of importance to the ceremony," Torrance
said, with a bitter smile. "Marriage is quite easy in this country."

Miss Schuyler was not deficient in courage of one kind, and she looked at
him steadily. "I came down to speak to you because it seemed your due,"
she said, "but I have no intention of listening to any jibes at my
friends."

Torrance made her a little half-respectful and half-ironical inclination.
"Then will you be good enough to answer my question?"

"Though most of the few meetings were accidental, I went with Hetty
intentionally on two occasions because it seemed fitting."

"It seemed fitting that a girl should betray her father to the man who
wanted to ruin him, supply him with the dollars that helped him in his
scheme, and, more than all, warn him of each move we made! Well, my
standard is not very high, but the most cruel blow I have had to bear was
the discovery that my daughter had fallen so far."

The hoarseness of his voice, and the sight of the damp upon his forehead,
had a calming effect upon Miss Schuyler. Her anger against the old man had
given place to pity, for she decided that what had passed would have
excited most men's suspicions, and it was not in Hetty's defence alone she
made an effort to undeceive him.

"I am going to answer you plainly, and I think an examination of Hetty's
cheque-book and the money she left behind will bear me out," she said.
"Once only did Hetty give Mr. Grant any dollars--fifty of them, I think,
to feed some hungry children. He would not take them until she assured him
that they were a part of a small annuity left her by her mother, and that
not one of them came from you. I also know that Mr. Grant allowed his
friends to suspect him of being bribed by you sooner than tell them where
he obtained the dollars in question. The adventurer dealt most honourably
with you. Your daughter twice disclosed your plans, on