d against them, and sobbed aloud. But Rust moved
not. There was no trace of compassion in either tone or manner, as he
continued: 'From your childhood, until you were grown up, you were the
person for whose welfare I toiled. I labored and strove for you; there was
not a thing that I did, not a thought that I ever harbored, which had not
your happiness for its aim; and to your love and devotion I looked for my
reward; and as I brooded over my own guilty life, blackened as it was with
the worst of crimes, I thought that it was some palliation to be the
parent of one pure and spotless as you were. Well, you turned out as
hundreds of others have done, and my labor was lost. I loved you as never
child was loved; and in proportion as my love once was great, so now is my
hate and scorn!'

'Oh! my God!' gasped the girl. She sank down as if crushed. Rust looked at
her unmoved, and did not stir to assist her. She raised her hands to him,
and said in a supplicating tone: 'Father! as you hope for mercy, hear me!'

'If I received not mercy from my own child,' said Rust, sternly, 'to whom
can I look for it? I hope for it no where; I ask for it no where; I am at
bay to the whole world.'

One of those dark, withering expressions which had once been so common to
his features, but which his anguish had for the last few days in a great
measure banished from them, swept across his face.

The girl wrung her hands, as she received his harsh answer. At last she
said, in a broken voice: 'Father, I am sadly guilty; but hear me, for
GOD'S sake, _do_ hear me!'

At that moment, the door was opened, and the officer's head was thrust in.

'Time's up.'

'I must have ten minutes more,' said Rust.

'You can't.'

'I must, I _will_,' exclaimed Rust, sternly.

He tossed him a dollar, which the man caught in his hand with professional
dexterity; and then, with a grin, said: 'Well, if you're so very anxious,
of course you must be accommodated;' and disappearing, shut the door.

'You said that you were guilty,' resumed Rust, turning to his daughter. 'I
know it. There's but one more so. You know to whom I allude. What is his
name?'

The girl grew very pale, and hung down her head in silence.

'Who is he?' again demanded her father, seizing her arm with a strong
grasp.

Still she made no reply.

'Be it so,' said Rust flinging her hand from him. 'Perhaps silence is
best. Now, one other question. _Where_ is he?'

She shook her head, and repli