shame! I've come out here to let you know. I can't do
anything. Nobody can do anything, but I wanted you to know that it
wasn't the bank that played you false. It was Marston, and he did it to
ruin you and your father! I know I'm talkin' plain to you, and I beg
your pardon if I'm too outspoken, but I've known you a long time, Miss
Julia, and we've been friends, in a way. I'd give my right hand to set
matters right at the bank, but I can't move an inch. Does the Major
know?"

"Father is not well, and this news must be kept from him," she answered.
"The paper--I will destroy it myself, now." She began to tear it into
strips, methodically. "It's good of you to come, Tom, so good of you,
and I'm grateful. I'm glad to know who was back of this crime--for it
amounts to that as far as we are concerned. It has a bit gotten the best
of me."

She stopped her occupation of shredding the _Herald_, and gazed
pensively at the ground in front of her. Dillard's round, baby-blue eyes
dwelt upon her in a protectingly hungry way. His pudgy face showed his
keen distress, and his fat hands toyed unceasingly with his hat. It was
plain there was something else he wanted to say, but he could not find
the words in which to express himself. Then, too, the time was not
propitious. If he had loved Julia Dudley silently and in a worshiping
way for six years, he surely could love her that same way a few days
longer, when he would come to her with the offer of his honest heart,
and plead with her to come with him away from all the troubles which
beset her. So he got to his feet rather awkwardly, dropping his hat as
he did so, and remarked--

"It's hot as blazes today, Miss Julia. If I can do _anything_ for you or
the Major, call on me."

"Thank you, Tom. But I'm sorry to have been the cause of you coming out
here in the sun at noonday."

"That doesn't matter a fig. I felt that you would want to know, and I
wanted to be the one to tell you. Good-bye; I must be back by one."

He held a red, moist hand towards her. She smiled at him and took it
with a few added words of appreciation, then Dillard was departing down
the avenue with such dignity as his avoirdupois would allow, for he felt
that the eyes of the girl were following his retreating form. Such was
not the case, however. Julia arose the instant her caller's back was
turned, gathered the streaming bits of paper into a tight wad in her two
hands, and going to the kitchen, flung them in the