he Doctor, "it seems absolutely just that Lila should
know who her husband is, and that Laura should know whom her child is
marrying. So far as I am concerned, I know this Adams blood; I'll trust
it to breed out any taint; but I have no right to decide for Lila; I
have no right to say what Laura will do--though, Grant, I know in my
heart that she would rather have her child marry yours than to have
anything else come about that the world could hold for her. And yet--she
should know the truth."

Grant sat with his head bowed, and his eyes on the floor, while the
Doctor spoke. Without looking up, he said: "There's some one else to
consider, Doctor--there's Margaret--after all, it's her son; it's her
secret. It's--I don't know what her rights are--perhaps she's forfeited
them. But she is at least physically his mother."

The Doctor looked up with a troubled face. He ran his hand over the
place where his pompadour once used to rise, and where only a fuzz
responded to the stroke of his dry palm, and answered:

"Grant--through it all--through all the tragedy that she has brought
here, I've kept that secret for Margaret. And until she releases me, I
can never break my silence. A doctor--one of the right sort--never
could. Whatever you feel are her rights--you and she must settle. It
must be you, not I, to tell this story, even to my own flesh and blood,
Grant."

Grant rose and walked the long, straight stretch of the veranda. His
shoulders, pugnacious, aggressive, and defiant, swayed as he walked
heavily and he gazed at the floor as one in shame. Finally he whirled
toward the Doctor and said:

"I'm going to his mother. I'm going now. She may have mighty few rights
in this matter--she cast him off shamefully. But she has just one right
here--the right to know that I shall tell her secret to Laura, and I'm
going to talk to her before I tell Laura. Even if Margaret clamors
against what I think is right, I shall not stop. But I'm not going to
sneak her secret away without her knowing it. I suppose that's about the
extent of her rights in Kenyon: to know before I tell his wife who he
really is, so that Margaret will know who knows and who does not know
her relation to him. It seems to me that is about the justice of the
case." The Doctor puffed at his pipe, and nodded a slow assent.

"Now's as good a time as any," answered the Doctor, and added: "By the
way, Amos--I had a telegram from Washington this morning, saying that
To