went out of the room, and came back with her hat and gloves
on, and her jacket over her arm. She had never been so beautiful, or so
terrible. "Listen to me, Adeline," she said, "I'm going out to send
Elbridge for Mr. Putney; and when he comes I am not going to have any
squabbling before him. You can do what you please with your half of the
property, but I'm going to give up my half to the company. Now, if you
don't promise you'll freely consent to what I want to do with my own, I
will never come back to this house, or ever see you again, or speak to
you. Do you promise?"

"Oh, well, I promise," said Adeline, forlornly, with a weak dribble of
tears. "You can take your half of the place that mother owned, and give
it to the men that are trying to destroy father's character! But I shall
never say that I wanted you should do it."

"So that you don't say anything against it, I don't care what else you
say." Suzette put on her jacket and stood buttoning it at her soft
throat. "_I_ do it; and I do it for mother's sake and for father's. I
care as much for them as you do."

In the evening Putney came, and she told him she wished him to contrive
whatever form was necessary to put her father's creditors in possession
of her half of the estate. "My sister doesn't feel as I do about it,"
she ended. "She thinks they have no right to it, and we ought to keep
it. But she has agreed to let me give my half up."

Putney went to the door and threw out the quid of tobacco which he had
been absently chewing upon while she spoke. "You know," he explained,
"that the creditors have no more claim on this estate, in law, than they
have on my house and lot?"

"I don't know. I don't care for the law."

"The case isn't altered at all, you know, by the fact that your father
is still living, and your title isn't affected by any of the admissions
made in the letter he has published."

"I understand that," said the girl.

"Well," said Putney, "I merely wanted to make sure you had all the
bearings of the case. The thing can be done, of course. There's nothing
to prevent any one giving any one else a piece of property."

He remained silent for a moment, as if doubtful whether to say more, and
Adeline asked, "And do you believe that if we were to give up the
property, they'd let father come back?"

Putney could not control a smile at her simplicity. "The creditors have
got nothing to do with that, Miss Northwick. Your father has been
indicted,