happiness--that always comes first with him
in everything."

Paul Colbert sat up suddenly, throwing back his hair, and looked at the
priest with a clearing gaze. All the questions which he had been wishing
to ask now rushed to his lips. What was Ruth's relation to Philip
Alston? What right had he to choose her husband? What was his influence
over William Pressley? What was his hold upon Judge Knox? What was this
power that he wielded over the whole family of Cedar House?

"He is no relation to her, is he? He isn't even her guardian. And
William Pressley is an honest man, isn't he, even though such a solemn,
pompous prig? He can hardly be a confederate of counterfeiters, forgers,
robbers, and murderers. And a single look at the judge's face shows him
to be the most upright of men; his open, unswerving honesty of thought
and deed, cannot be doubted. How is it, then, that Philip Alston can
move all these honorable and intelligent people to suit his villanous
purposes, as if they were pawns in a game of chess?"

"Ah, you don't know much about Philip Alston. You have met him only
once--yet that must have made you feel the wonderful charm of the man,
his singular power. You have seen how he looks," laughing at some
recollection. "Sometimes when he has talked to me, looking me straight
in the face with his clear, soft, gentle, blue eyes, I have doubted
everything that I ever had heard against him. Things that I know to a
moral certainty to be true seemed a monstrous slander. You must have
felt something of this, though you have seen him but once; and the more
frequently you meet him the more you will feel it. The power of the man
is past words and past understanding. Did you know that he once held a
high office under Spain? Oh, yes, for years he controlled the arrogant,
treacherous, local government of Spain as absolutely as he controls the
simple family of Cedar House. He was living in Natchez then, and was
apparently a very devout Catholic, too, about this time. But the church
which he attended was mysteriously robbed; its altar was stripped of
everything precious,--gold, jewels, paintings,--when none but himself
had had access to the church unobserved. That is the story. I do not
vouch for its truth. There was no evidence against him--only suspicions
in this as in everything else. It was shortly afterward that he suddenly
appeared in this country a stanch Protestant; and then almost
immediately the present reign of crime