presently. "Is this
politics?"

But he ceased in his assault as he saw the pallor of the face of his
antagonist.

"You've got me, Hod!" said Judge William Henderson, gasping. "I confess!
It's over. You've got me!"

"Yes, I've got you, but I don't want you," said Hod Brooks. "I'm not
after you socially, legally, politically, or any other way. I tell you,
I'm thinking of those two women who put your son through college--who
had all they could do to keep their souls in their bodies, while you
lived the way you have lived here. They paid your debts for you--they
advanced cash and character _both_ for you--just two poor women. The
question now is, How are you going to pay any of your debts? There'll be
considerable accrued interest."

"I didn't know it all, I tell you," broke out Judge Henderson. "She
hasn't spoken to me for years, you might say--we never met. I didn't
know the boy was alive--she told me twenty years ago that he'd died, a
baby. This has all come up in a day--I've not had time to learn, to
think, to plan, to adjust----God! don't you think it's terrible enough,
with him there in jail?"

"She never asked you for help?"

"No, not till yesterday."

"She was game. I was sure. That was one reason why I went to that woman
night before last and asked her if she'd marry me."

"What--you did that?"

"I did that! I told her _I_ would take the boy and give him a father. I
said I'd even call him my own--I'd come that close to losing my own
self-respect in just this one case in the world. But, I told her, of
course I couldn't do that unless she was a widow. And, Judge, I
learned--from her--that she wasn't a widow. Oh, no, she didn't tell me
about you--and I never figured it out all clean till just now--that the
late District Judge of this county, and the Senatorial candidate for
this State--was the father of the boy, Don Lane. Huh? Oh, stand up to
it--you've got to take it.

"Now, this boy of yours had no father and two mothers--it's an odd case.
But how did I learn who was the father of that boy? Not from Aurora
Lane. No, I learned that from the other mother--this morning--Miss
Julia. And as soon as I did--as soon as I was convinced I had proofs--I
started over to find you."

"My God! man, what could you have meant?--You told her you would marry
her?" Judge Henderson's sheer astonishment overcame all other emotions.

"I meant every word I said. If it could have been humanly possible for
me to marry her,