hing wrong. One day my father came
upon us just as Herbert had caught me and was trying to cut my curls
off. I didn't care about the curls, but I knew my father did. I began to
scream. Herbert gripped me so I thought I would die with the pain,
putting his big strong fingers around my throat and choking me so I
could not make any noise."

Reyburn clenched his hands until the knuckles went white and uttered an
exclamation, but Betty did not notice:

"There was a terrible time then, and I was sent away to a school, a good
many miles from home, where I stayed for several years. Father always
came up to see me every week end, for a few hours at least, and we had
wonderful times together. Sometimes in vacation he would bring my
stepmother along and she would bring me beautiful presents and smile and
pet me, and say she missed me so much and she wished I would ask my
father to let me come back and go to school in the city. But I never
did, because I was afraid of Herbert. As I grew older I used to have an
awful horror of him. But finally one vacation father and mother both
came up and said they wanted me at home. My stepmother went to my room
with me and told me I needn't be afraid of Herbert any more, that he was
quite grown up and changed and would be good to me, and that it would
please my father to have all his family together happily again. I
believed her and I told father I would like to go. He looked very happy,
and so I went home. Herbert had been away at school himself most of the
time, and so had Bessemer, although they had been in trouble a good many
times, so the servants told me, and had to change to new schools. They
were both away when I got home. I had a very happy time for three weeks,
only that I never saw father alone once. My stepmother was always there.
But she was kind and I tried not to mind. Then all of a sudden one night
I woke up and heard voices, and I knew that the boys were back from the
camp to which they had been sent. I didn't sleep much the rest of the
night, but in the morning I made up my mind that it was only a little
while before I could go back to school, and I would be nice to the boys
and maybe they wouldn't trouble me.

"I found that it was quite true that Herbert had grown up and changed.
He didn't want to torment me any more, he wanted to make love to me,
and I was only a child yet. I wasn't quite fifteen. It filled me with
horror, and after he had caught me in the dark--he always l