at you must be doing the best you can as
you see your duty."

"I can hope for no more than that, my dear."

Suddenly she shook the hair from her shining eyes.

"Father!"

"Yes?"

"I tell you what I'm going to do!" she cried. "I'm going to Uncle Josiah
just as soon as he gets back, and tell him as much as I think he ought
to know. May I?"

"Certainly, if you wish. I'll trust to your discretion. He will listen
to you. I think you know what must not be said, from our conversation
this evening."

"I'll do it!" she exclaimed eagerly, and stooped above the chair to kiss
her father's forehead. "Now, you go right to bed. That is my first
remedy. My second is like unto it: don't do one single bit of worrying.
Remember! Good night."

The Elder rose and smiled benignly on his daughter. At the door he
paused, and turned back.

"Beth, this may affect the minister."

"Affect the minister? Affect Mr. McGowan? How can it do that?"

"He has doubtless urged Josiah to take this rash step to consult a
lawyer, and when all the facts come out he may be forced to leave Little
River. As you know, his popularity is quite dubious as matters stand at
present."

"But I hardly see----"

"We'll say nothing more about that. Good night, my dear."

Her door closed, and her father crossed the hall. She was no sooner
alone than a rush of unbidden thoughts and emotions swept over her,
carrying all her promises like chaff before a hurricane. While her
father had been in the room she had thought herself quite determined to
take the hard step of explaining to Uncle Josiah just enough to remove
the blame from the one she loved to the half-brother. But now that the
Elder had gone her will to explain seemed gone, too. Again he rose
before her imagination, a white trembling figure. She heard Harold speak
the name of Adoniah Phillips, and saw her father stagger from the table.
Had these two things been a mere coincidence? Doubts began to rise. Why
must the mortgage be foreclosed on Uncle Josiah's place? Why had her
father acted so on the evening when Harold had spoken his client's name?
Had her father told her all? Why should all this involve the minister,
even though he had advised the Captain to seek the counsel of a lawyer?

Long into the night she puzzled her brain in seeking for answers to her
many questions. Of one thing she felt sure, Mr. McGowan would not leave
Little River. Just between waking and sleeping she at length recalled
the