.

Now it happened that Mr. Harker was late at the office that night,
bending, sad and wrinkled, over his interminable papers; the whole
business connected with which was so repugnant to him. Sigh after sigh
escaped his thin lips, as he read the piteous appeals, and knew that he
must refuse them; must deal out fresh misery against his will. It was
hard to be the tool of such a merciless fiend; to be the servant of such
a master of deceit, villainy and fraud; but so greatly did the father
love his child that he would scarce have hesitated in committing a
murder had Jasper Vermont set that crime as a price of his forbearance
and silence. He would have purchased his daughter's safety and happiness
with his heart's blood, if need be.

Unconscious of the release that was so fast approaching, he worked on,
setting in order the various accounts which Vermont would require to be
laid before him on the following day; and entering in a book concise
histories of the debts and difficulties which placed dozens of Jasper's
acquaintances within his power.

A knock at the door startled him, and roused him from his task. Hastily
shutting the ledger before which he was seated, and covering the deeds
and documents with a large sheet of paper, the old man rose and opened
the door.

It was his son-in-law, John Ashford, and at the sight of his round,
kindly face, Harker staggered back, and clutched at the table.

"Lucy!" he gasped out. "Is she ill?"

"All right! All right!" said John reassuringly, but in a quieter voice
than his usual jovial one. "Don't be frightened. But when she says 'Go
and fetch father,' you see, I come and fetch you directly."

Mr. Harker was not to be deceived by this attempt at a jest.

"She is ill!" he cried, the perspiration breaking out on his forehead.

John nodded.

"She is better now," he said. "But I should like you to come down at
once. We shall catch a train to Hampton Court, and I have a trap waiting
for me there." Without any further explanation--for after thinking the
matter over, he had determined that Lucy herself should break the news
to her father--he helped the old man, still trembling and shaking, to
put on his coat, and to lock up the office; and it was not until they
were well on their way, that John told him how he had found his wife a
fortnight ago, lying unconscious on the ground.

Mr. Harker's troubled face darkened, and his thin hands clenched and
unclenched themselves, for he kne