red Von Barwig.

"We were going to spend our honeymoon in Paris," said Helene in a
curiously strained voice, for it was all she could do to keep back her
tears; "but now we have changed our plans! We are going to the little
town where I was born."

Von Barwig drew a deep breath and nodded. "So?"

"We are going to Leipsic," and Helene Cruger looked closely, anxiously,
into the old man's face. No sign of recognition was there.

"Shall we go?" she asked after a pause. He shook his head.

"Don't go!" he said simply.

"Why not?" asked Helene, as if his answer meant a great deal to her.

"Leipsic is not a--a pleasant place for honeymoons," he replied
evasively.

"That's just what--my--my father said." She was watching him closely
now. The expression on Von Barwig's face was unchanged.

"Your father is--right," he said finally.

"I told him to-day after the service," said Helene, "that we were going
to Leipsic, and he tried to make me promise not to go. When I refused,
he forbade me to go, but he can't forbid me any more; he is beginning
to understand that for the first time to-day." She spoke now with a
deep-rooted sense of injury Von Barwig could only nod. He knew now
that she had made some discovery.

"It's so easy to deceive a child," continued Helene in a voice that
must have betrayed the great depth of her feelings. "A child believes
everything you tell it. It will grow up on lies, but when that child
is older and a woman, then the truth comes out! Herr Von Barwig, the
truth comes out!" She looked him full in the face, but still there was
no sign.

"What truth?" faltered the old man. He realised now that she knew; but
exactly what did she know?

"You ask me that?" she said sadly. "You, my--my--old music master!"

"A music master who taught you nothing," he said evasively.

"Shall I go to Leipsic?" asked Helene.

The old man shook his head. "No!" he articulated faintly.

"Why not?" demanded Helene. There was no reply. "And you won't tell
me why?"

"I have told you," faltered Von Barwig.

"What have I done, what have I done!" cried Helene, "that you won't
claim me?" Her voice was now choked with sobs and she no longer made
any effort to restrain them. "_He_ wouldn't tell me either; he
referred me to you. What have I done? I have waited and waited and
waited, but you won't speak! You knew me from the first. You must
have known me from the likeness. I was under your roof, you