d received notice that he had a note
for three thousand dollars falling due at one of the banks. He went
immediately and asked to see the note. When it was shown to him, he was
observed to become very pale, but he left the desk of the note-clerk
without any remark, and returned home. He met his wife at the door, just
coming in.

"What's the matter?" she asked, seeing how pale he was. "Not sick, I
hope?"

"Worse than sick," he replied as they passed into the house together.
"George has been forging my name."

"Impossible!" exclaimed Mrs. Dinneford.

"I wish it were," replied Mr. Dinneford, sadly; "but, alas! it is too
true. I have just returned from the Fourth National Bank. They have a
note for three thousand dollars, bearing my signature. It is drawn
to the order of George Granger, and endorsed by him. The note is a
forgery."

Mrs. Dinneford became almost wild with excitement. Her fair face grew
purple. Her eyes shone with a fierce light.

"Have you had him arrested?" she asked.

"Oh no, no, no!" Mr. Dinneford answered. "For poor Edith's sake, if for
nothing else, this dreadful business must be kept secret. I will take up
the note when due, and the public need be none the wiser."

"If," said Mrs. Dinneford, "he has forged your name once, he has, in all
probability, done it again and again. No, no; the thing can't be hushed
up, and it must not be. Is he less a thief and a robber because he is
our son-in-law? My daughter the wife of a forger! Great heavens! has it
come to this Mr. Dinneford?" she added, after a pause, and with intense
bitterness and rejection in her voice. "The die is cast! Never again, if
I can prevent it, shall that scoundrel cross our threshold. Let the law
have its course. It is a crime to conceal crime."

"It will kill our poor child!" answered Mr. Dinneford in a broken voice.

"Death is better than the degradation of living with a criminal,"
replied his wife. "I say it solemnly, and I mean it; the die is cast!
Come what will, George Granger stands now and for ever on the outside!
Go at once and give information to the bank officers. If you do not, I
will."

With a heavy heart Mr. Dinneford returned to the bank and informed the
president that the note in question was a forgery. He had been gone from
home a little over half an hour, when Granger, who had come to ask him
about the three notes given him that morning by Freeling, put his key in
the door, and found, a little to his surprise