uth from me,
and I will tell you nothing more. I hated the girl, and though I have
never seen her, I hate the child on her account, and I would not lift
even a finger to help her in any way."

"Are you not unreasonably vindictive, Mrs. Montague?" mildly asked Mr.
Corbin.

"Unreasonable or not, I mean what I say, and Homer Forester's money may
be scattered to the four winds of heaven for any effort that I will make
for Mona Forester's child," was the dogged response.

"Do you not see that I must learn the truth?" the lawyer asked, with some
sternness, "and though I am averse to using threats to a lady, if you
will not tell me voluntarily I shall be obliged to use means to compel
you to reveal what you know."

"Compel me!" repeated Mrs. Montague, confronting him with haughty mien.
"You cannot do that."

"But I can, Mrs. Montague," Mr. Corbin positively asserted. "Since you
have acknowledged so much, and it is evident that you could reveal more,
you can be compelled, by law, to do so under oath."

"You would not dare to adopt such stringent measures with me, after all
the business that I have thrown into your hands," the woman said,
sharply, but growing white about the mouth.

"My duty is just as obligatory to one client as to another. I am under as
much obligation to carry out the conditions of Homer Forester's will as I
am to be faithful to your interests," the lawyer replied, with inflexible
integrity.

"Then you will no longer be faithful to me--you will transact no
more business for _me_," Mrs. Montague asserted, with angry brow and
compressed lips.

"Very well, if that is your decision I must submit to it," was the
imperturbable response. "And now, madame, I ask you, once for all, to
tell me the name of the man whom Mona Forester married?"

"I will not."

"Then let _me_ tell _you_ what conclusion I have drawn from what I have
learned during this interview," said Mr. Corbin, as he leaned forward and
looked straight into the woman's flashing eyes. "You have said you hated
her because she ruined your life--because she loved the man you loved.
You have refused to tell me the name of that man. You can have but one
reason in thus withholding this information--that motive is fear;
therefore, I infer that Mona Forester was the _first wife of your
husband--her child was your husband's daughter_."

"Prove it, then!" cried his companion, with a scornful, though nervous,
laugh. "Find the marriage certificate--fin