d spoke up quickly and with unexpected firmness:

"I came here to do so and do so I will. But where begin? Miss Strange,
you cannot be ignorant of the circumstances, open and avowed, which
attended my wife's death. But there were other and secret events in its
connection which happily have been kept from the world, but which I must
now disclose to you at any cost to my pride and so-called honour. This
is the first one: On the morning preceding the day of Mrs. Upjohn's
death, an interview took place between us at which my father was
present. You do not know my father, Miss Strange. A strong man and a
stern one, with a hold upon old traditions which nothing can shake.
If he has a weakness it is for my little boy Roger in whose promising
traits he sees the one hope which has survived the shipwreck of all for
which our name has stood. Knowing this, and realizing what the child's
presence in the house meant to his old age, I felt my heart turn sick
with apprehension, when in the midst of the discussion as to the terms
on which my wife would consent to a permanent separation, the little
fellow came dancing into the room, his curls atoss and his whole face
beaming with life and joy.

"She had not mentioned the child, but I knew her well enough to be
sure that at the first show of preference on his part for either his
grandfather or myself, she would raise a claim to him which she would
never relinquish. I dared not speak, but I met his eager looks with my
most forbidding frown and hoped by this show of severity to hold him
back. But his little heart was full and, ignoring her outstretched arms,
he bounded towards mine with his most affectionate cry. She saw and
uttered her ultimatum. The child should go with her or she would not
consent to a separation. It was useless for us to talk; she had said her
last word. The blow struck me hard, or so I thought, till I looked at my
father. Never had I beheld such a change as that one moment had made in
him. He stood as before; he faced us with the same silent reprobation;
but his heart had run from him like water.

"It was a sight to call up all my resources. To allow her to remain
now, with my feelings towards her all changed and my father's eyes fully
opened to her stony nature, was impossible. Nor could I appeal to law.
An open scandal was my father's greatest dread and divorce proceedings
his horror. The child would have to go unless I could find a way to
influence her through her