n. "Father, I have something to confess."

He was amazed, but less distressed than he had been. His Anna, his
own, liebling Anna, could not have anything to confess which was so
very terrible. He looked down at her and smiled in reassurance. Her
wonderful, dark eyes were upturned, as he gazed, and, for an instant,
looked straight at his; but then the delicately veined lids drooped.

"You have something to confess? What is it, Anna?"

"I shall not go back again to Mrs. Vanderlyn's," she slowly answered.
"I have come home, my father; have come home to you--to stay."

He was worried. Could she be satisfied, after what she had been having
there at Mrs. Vanderlyn's, with what his small purse had to offer her
in this unpleasant tenement? His heart leaped at the thought of having
her with him again; none but himself could know how greatly he had
missed her, and he could give her food and shelter. But would she,
now, be happy there with him, in all his poverty?

"Ah; you have quarreled?" he ventured, hesitantly.

"No," she faltered.

His wrath rose. Ah, that was it! The woman had been unkind to her, had
asked of her some menial service, had presumed upon the fact that she
was but an employee! "She has mistreated you," he cried, in
indignation. "She has mistreated you! Well, here is--"

Anna interrupted him by laying a soft hand upon his lips. She had to
stretch and strain a little to reach up so far, crouched low there, as
she was, quite at his feet. Her heart was beating very fast as came
the time for her confession. She hoped that he would not be very
angry, very greatly horrified.

"No," she said slowly; "no, we have not quarreled, she has not
mistreated me; but--she will be very angry--she will not forgive me,
when she knows--"

Kreutzer was affrighted. There seemed to him to be a hint of dreadful
revelations to be made in the soft droop of Anna's head, the trembling
of her little hand in his, the swift ebb and flow of the rich color in
the pink satin of her cheeks.

"Anna," he said, aghast, "what is there for her to know? Oh, my
Anna--what is there for her to know? Fear not. Your old father--he
will understand and will forgive--will forgive anything in all this
world--no matter what. Remember that. Remember that, and tell me,
Anna, what is there for Mrs. Vanderlyn to pardon?"

She did not lift her head. Her eyes flashed up at him in one quick
look of terror, but never by an inch did she raise toward her
fath