tter go away," suggested her daughter.

"No," she said; "he needn't know just yet. Wait awhile." But in her
heart of hearts she knew that the evil day could not be long
postponed.

One day, when her own suspense had reached such a pitch that it
could no longer be endured, Mrs. Gerhardt sent Jennie away with the
children, hoping to be able to tell her husband before they returned.
All the morning she fidgeted about, dreading the opportune moment and
letting him retire to his slumber without speaking. When afternoon
came she did not go out to work, because she could not leave with her
painful duty unfulfilled. Gerhardt arose at four, and still she
hesitated, knowing full well that Jennie would soon return and that
the specially prepared occasion would then be lost. It is almost
certain that she would not have had the courage to say anything if he
himself had not brought up the subject of Jennie's appearance.

"She doesn't look well," he said. "There seems to be something the
matter with her."

"Oh," began Mrs. Gerhardt, visibly struggling with her fears, and
moved to make an end of it at any cost, "Jennie is in trouble. I don't
know what to do. She--"

Gerhardt, who had unscrewed a door-lock and was trying to mend it,
looked up sharply from his work.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Mrs. Gerhardt had her apron in her hands at the time, her nervous
tendency to roll it coming upon her. She tried to summon sufficient
courage to explain, but fear mastered her completely; she lifted the
apron to her eyes and began to cry.

Gerhardt looked at her and rose. He was a man with the Calvin type
of face, rather spare, with skin sallow and discolored as the result
of age and work in the wind and rain. When he was surprised or angry
sparks of light glittered in his eyes. He frequently pushed his hair
back when he was troubled, and almost invariably walked the floor;
just now he looked alert and dangerous.

"What is that you say?" he inquired in German, his voice straining
to a hard note. "In trouble--has some one--" He paused and
flung his hand upward. "Why don't you speak?" he demanded.

"I never thought," went on Mrs. Gerhardt, frightened, and yet
following her own train of thought, "that anything like that would
happen to her. She was such a good girl. Oh!" she concluded, "to think
he should ruin Jennie."

"By thunder!" shouted Gerhardt, giving way to a fury of feeling, "I
thought so! Brander! Ha! Your fine man! That c