prevent my being shocked by that discovery--that horror out
there on the lawn. Things had happened to convince him that such a
thing, shouted through the night, would be a terrific blow to me. I'm
sure that that was the only idea he had when he put his hand over Judge
Wilton's mouth."

"I can believe that," he said. "Tell me why you believe it."

"Oh!" she protested, hands clenched on her knees; "if it affected only
him and me!"

Her suspicion of her father recurred to him. It was, he thought, back of
the terror he saw in her eyes now.

"But it does affect only him and me, after all!" she continued fiercely,
as much to strengthen herself in what she wanted to believe as to force
him to that belief. "Let me tell you the whole affair, from beginning to
end."

She proceeded in a low tone, the words slower, as if she laboured for
precision and clarity.

"I must go back to Friday--the night before last--it seems months ago! I
had heard that Berne had become involved in some sort of relationship
with his stenographer--that she had been dismissed from his office and
refused to accept the dismissal as final. I mean, of course, I heard she
was in love with him, and he'd been in love with her--or should have
been.

"It was told me by a friend of mine in Washington, Lucy Carnly. It seems
another stenographer overheard the conversation between Berne and
Miss--Miss Brace. It got out that way. It was very circumstantial; I
couldn't help believing it, some of it; Lucy wouldn't have brought me
idle gossip--I thought."

She drew in her under lip, to hide its momentary tremour, and shook her
head from side to side once.

"All that, Mr. Hastings, came up, as a matter of course, when Berne
reached here evening before last for the week-end. I'd just heard it
that day. He denied it, said there had been nothing remotely resembling
a love affair.--He was indignant, and very hurt!--He said she'd
misconstrued some of his kindnesses to her. He couldn't explain how she
had misconstrued them. At any rate, the result was that I broke our
engagement. I----"

"Friday night!" Hastings exclaimed involuntarily.

He grasped on the instant how grossly Webster, by withholding all this,
had deceived him, left him in the dark.

"Yes; and I told father about it," she hurried her words here, the
effect of her manner being the impression that she hoped this fact would
not bulk too large in the detective's thoughts. "The three of us had a
talk a