bout it Friday night. Father's wonderfully fond of Berne and tried
to persuade me I was foolishly ruining my life. I refused to change my
mind. When I went upstairs, they stayed a long time in the library,
talking.

"I think they decided the best thing for Berne was to stay on here,
through yesterday and today, in the hope that he and father might change
my mind. Father tried to, yesterday morning. He was awfully upset.
That's one reason he's so worn out and sick today.--I love my father so,
Mr. Hastings!" She held her lips tight-shut a moment, a sob struggling
in her throat. "But my distress, my own hurt pride----"

"What did your father say about Mildred Brace?" Hastings asked, when she
did not finish that sentence.

She looked at him, again with widened eyes, a startled air, putting both
her hands to her throat.

"There!" she said, voice falling to a whisper.

Then, turning her face half from him, she whispered so low that he heard
her with difficulty: "I wish I were dead!"

Her words frightened him, they had so clearly the ring of truth, as if
she would in sober fact have preferred death to the thought which was
breaking her heart--suspicion of her father.

"That was why Berne stopped the judge's outcry," she said at last,
turning her white face to him; "he had the sudden wild idea that I'm
afraid you have--that father might have killed her. And Berne did not
want that awful fact screamed through the night at me. Oh, can't you
see--can't you see that, Mr. Hastings?"

"It's entirely possible; Mr. Webster may have thought that.--But let's
keep the story straight. What had your father said about Mildred
Brace--to arouse any such suspicion?"

"He was angry, terribly indignant. You know I made no secret to you of
his high temper. His rages are fierce.--Once, when he was that way, I
saw him kill a dog. If it had--but I think all men who're unstrung
nervously, as he is, have high tempers. He felt so indignant because she
had come between Berne and myself. He blamed neither Berne nor me. He
seemed to concentrate all his anger upon her.

"He said--you see, Mr. Hastings, I tell you everything!--he threatened
to go to her and---- He had, of course, no definite idea what he would
do. Finally, he did say he would buy her off, pay her to leave this part
of the country. After that, he said, he knew I would 'see things
clearly,' and Berne and I would be reconciled."

Hastings remembered Russell's assertion that Mildred