lle!" rejoined Hortense, warmly. "It's strange if we
can't--with Flossie's help--soon make her sick of her visit."

CHAPTER XII

"I MUST LEARN THE TRUTH"

Helen was already very sick of her Uncle Starkweather's home and family.
But she was too proud to show the depth of her feeling before the old
serving man in whose charge she had been momentarily placed.

Lawdor was plainly pleased to wait upon her. He made fresh coffee in his
own percolator; there was a cutlet kept warm upon an electric stove, and
he insisted upon frying her a rasher of bacon and some eggs.

Despite all that mentally troubled her, her healthy body needed
nourishment and Helen ate with an appetite that pleased the old man
immensely.

"If--if you go out early, Miss, don't forget to come here for your
coffee," he said. "Or more, if you please. I shall be happy to serve
you."

"And I'm happy to have you," returned the girl, heartily.

She could not assume to him the rude tone and manner which she had
displayed to her uncle and cousins. _That_ had been the outcome of an
impulse which had risen from the unkind expressions she had heard them use
about her.

As soon as she could get away, she had ceased being an eavesdropper. But
she had heard enough to assure her that her relatives were not glad to see
her; that they were rude and unkind, and that they were disturbed by her
presence among them.

But there was another thing she had drawn from their ill-advised talk,
too. She had heard her father mentioned in no kind way. Hints were thrown
out that Prince Morrell's crime--or the crime of which he had been
accused--was still remembered in New York.

Back into her soul had come that wave of feeling she experienced after her
father's death. He had been so troubled by the smirch upon his name--the
cloud that had blighted his young manhood in the great city.

"I'll know the truth," she thought again. "I'll find out who _was_ guilty.
They sha'n't drive me away until I have accomplished my object in coming
East."

This was the only thought she had while she remained under old Lawdor's
eye. She had to bear up, and seem unruffled until the breakfast was
disposed of and she could escape upstairs.

She went up the servants' way. She saw the same girl she had noticed in
the parlor early in the morning.

"Can you show me my room?" she asked her, timidly.

"Top o' the next flight. Door's open," replied the girl, shortly.

Already the news had