oud of you. I give you my confidence to-night just
as naturally and unhesitatingly as if we had been rocked in the
same cradle. I am not wearying you with this long explanation and
preamble?"

"No, Graydon," she replied, in a low tone.

"I am very glad. I don't think well of myself to-night at all, and I
have a very humiliating confession to make--one that I could make only
to such a sister as you are, or rather would have been, were there
a natural tie between us. I would not tell any Tom, Dick, and Harry
friends in the world what I shall now make known to you. If I didn't
trust you so, I wouldn't speak of it, for what I shall say involves
Henry as well as myself. Madge, I've been duped, I've been made both
a fool and a tool, and the consequences might have been grave indeed.
Henry, who has so much quiet sagacity, has in some way obtained
information that proved of immense importance to him, and absolutely
vital to me. I shudder when I think of what might have happened, and
I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of my escape. I told
you that Miss Wildmere was humoring that fellow Arnault to save her
father, and consequently her mother and the child. This impression,
which was given me so skilfully, and at last confirmed by plain words,
was utterly false. Henry has been in financial danger; Wildmere knew
it, and he also knew that Arnault had lent Henry money, which to-day
was called in with the hope of breaking him down. They would have
succeeded, too, had he not had resources of which they knew nothing.
You, of course, can't realize how essential a little ready money
sometimes is in a period of financial depression; but Henry left a
note which gave me an awful shock, while, at the same time, it made
clear Miss Wildmere's scheme. She had simply put me off, that she
might hear from Wall Street. If Henry had failed she would have
decided for Arnault, and I believe my attentions led to his tricky
transaction--that he loaned the money and called it in when he
believed that Henry could not meet his demand. I must be put out
of his way, for he reasoned justly that the girl would drop me if
impoverished. Thus indirectly I might have caused Henry's failure--a
blow from which I should never have recovered. Henry is safe now, he
assures me; and, oh, Madge, thank God, I have found her out before
it was too late! I had fully resolved while oft trouting that I would
break with her finally if I found Arnault at her side again