dowy corner, clutched her lank red
fingers over the tidy she was eternally crocheting and never finishing,
dropped the eye-glasses from her bony nose into her lap, and went to
sleep.

"Can I speak with you alone, Mrs. Rutherford?" tremulously asked
Plowden, stopping at the threshold.

"Certainly, Mr. Plowden; come in," Edna replied, trying her best to
speak pleasantly. Plowden glanced at Miss Fithian. "Oh, I am as good as
alone," continued Edna, following his look. "Helen is asleep; and even
if she were awake, she could not hear you if you spoke in an undertone."

"True," assented Plowden. "I forgot that she's as deaf as a post. Well,
the trouble is just this. Your husband has confided to me that a little
difference has arisen between you, owing to a slight misunderstanding--"

"Ah, indeed! 'A slight misunderstanding,' eh? Well?" interpolated Mrs.
Rutherford, icily, but with fire in her eye.

Plowden was very nervous, but he struggled on bravely: "As I alone can
set the matter right, he appealed to me to do so."

"Ah! You think you can. I am curious to know how. I presume I shall
understand as you go on."

He shuddered, but continued: "In order that you may do so, I must reveal
to you my secret--one that I have locked up for many years. When I came
to this country, I left a wife in England."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Edna, drawing away from him in surprise, and saying
to herself, "Ah! is he too a villain?"

Involuntarily he raised his voice a little, to span the distance that
now separated them, and went on: "Yes; but I had some excuse, I assure
you." He then related the story of his married life as he had told it to
Rutherford, carefully omitting, however, to mention the age of his
daughter.

When he had finished, Edna remarked: "Well, I _am_ surprised, Mr.
Plowden. But still I do not see what all this has to do with me and my
husband."

"I am coming to that. You will see. Fearing that my wife might follow,
trace, and reclaim my daughter if she remained with me, I prevailed upon
your husband to place her in a boarding-school in New York, where she
remained, under a false name, until, upon the death of her mother, I
removed her. Now, do you see?"

"I do, I do!" exclaimed Mrs. Rutherford, her clouded face clearing. "How
simple it all is, in the light of this explanation! What a weight you
have lifted from my heart! I was looking forward to a wretched
Christmas, but now I shall have such a happy one. How can I e