ot see
that I am filled with despair--that I am desperate?"

"I am sorry," she answered, gravely, "but I can tell you nothing
different--my answer is final, and your own sense of what is right
should make you realize and submit to it."

"Then you do not care for the marriage certificate and other proofs?" he
said.

Again the young girl's lips curled with infinite scorn.

"Did you suppose that my love and my hand were, like articles of
merchandise, to be bought and sold?" she asked, with scathing sarcasm.
"Yes, I do care for--I do want the proofs; but they are not to be
mentioned in connection with such sacred subjects," she went on, with
dignity. "If you were really my friend you would never have suggested
anything of the kind; you would have been glad to help me to any proof
that would relieve my mind and heart from the harassing doubts regarding
the history of my parents. If such proofs exist, as you claim, they
rightly _belong_ to me, and you are uncourteous, not to say dishonorable,
in keeping them from me."

"People are not in the habit of resigning important documents simply for
the sake of preserving themselves from the charge of discourtesy," Louis
laconically observed.

"I am to understand from that, I suppose, that you will not give them to
me," Mona remarked. "Well, since I _know_ that there was no blame or
shame attached to my mother--since I know that she was only a victim to
the wickedness of others--it will not matter so very much if I do not
have the tangible proofs you possess, and I must try to be content
without them."

She made another attempt to leave the room, but he still stood in her
way.

"I cannot--I will not give you up," he said, between his tightly locked
teeth.

"You will be kind enough to let me pass, Mr. Hamblin." Mona returned, and
ignoring his excited assertion.

"No, I will not," he fiercely replied.

She lifted her eyes, and met his angry glance with one so proudly
authoritative that he involuntarily averted his own gaze.

"I beg that you will not cause me to lose all faith in you," she quietly
remarked.

A hot flush surged to his brow, and he instantly stepped aside, looking
crestfallen and half-ashamed.

Without another word, Mona passed from the room and entered her own
chamber.

As soon as she had closed and locked the door, she sat down, and tried to
think over all that had been said about her mother; this one subject
filled all her mind to the exclusion of