t I am not a volunteer witness in this case?"

The judge looked a little puzzled and Tiara said, "At any rate, judge,
if in after time it be said that I did not on this occasion stand up for
those connected with me by ties of blood, I want it understood that I
did not seek this chair--did not know that I was to be called; but since
I am here, I shall fulfil my oath and tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth."

Tiara now took her seat in the witness chair.

Eunice leaned forward and gazed at Tiara, her thin beautiful lips
quivering, her eyes trying to read the intent of Tiara's soul.

Tiara looked at the recording clerk and appeared to address her
testimony to him. Now that she was forced to speak she desired the whole
truth to come out. Her poor tired soul now clutched at proffered
surcease through the unburdening of itself. She began:

"In revolutionary times one of your most illustrious men, whose fame has
found lodgment in all quarters of the globe, was clandestinely married
to a Negro woman. My mother was a direct descendant of this man. My
mother's ancestors, descendants of this man, made a practice of
intermarrying with mulattoes, until in her case all trace of Negro
blood, so far as personal appearance was concerned, had disappeared. She
married my father, he thinking that she was wholly white, and she
thinking the same of him. Two children, a boy and a girl, having all the
characteristics of whites, were born to them. Then I was born and my
complexion showed plainly the traces of Negro blood. The community in
which we lived, Shirleyville, Indiana, in a quiet way, was much
disturbed over the Negro blood manifested in me, and my mother's good
name was imperilled.

"My mother confessed to my father the fact that she was a descendant of
Negroes and he made a like confession to my mother as to his ancestry.
When Shirleyville found out that my parents had Negro blood in their
veins, I was regarded as a 'reversion to type,' and the storm blew over.
My father became Mayor of the town, and great ambitions began to form in
my mother's heart.

"A notable social event was to take place at Indianapolis and my mother
aspired to be a guest. She met with a rebuff because she had Negro blood
in her veins. This rebuff corrupted my mother's whole nature, and
hardened her heart. She had my father to resign as Mayor. Our home was
burned and we were all supposed to have perished in the flames. This was
my m