r."

"New honour?" queried he.

"Oh, your name reaches even to New York! We hear that you are spoken
of to succeed Senator Grayson when he retires next year."

"Oh, that!" He smiled--still with some constraint. "I won't try to
make you believe that I'm indifferent about the matter. But I don't
need to tell you that there's many a slip betwixt being 'spoken of'
and actually being chosen."

There was an instant of awkward silence. Then Katherine went straight
to the business of her visit.

"Of course you know about father."

He nodded. "And I do not need to say, Katherine, how very, very sorry
I am."

"I was certain of your sympathy. Things look black on the surface for
him, but I want you to know that he is innocent."

"I am relieved to be assured of that," he said, hesitatingly. "For,
frankly, as you say, things do look black."

She leaned forward and spoke rapidly, her hands tightly clasped.

"I have come to see you, Mr. Blake, because you have always been our
friend--my friend, and a kinder friend than a young girl had any right
to expect--because I know you have the ability to bring out the truth
no matter how dark the circumstantial evidence may seem. I have come,
Mr. Blake, to ask you, to beg you, to be my father's lawyer."

He stared at her, and his face grew pale.

"To be your father's lawyer?" he repeated.

"Yes, yes--to be my father's lawyer."

He turned in his chair and looked out to where the fountain was
flinging its iridescent drapery to the wind. She gazed at his strong,
clean-cut profile in breathless expectation.

"I again assure you he is innocent," she urged pleadingly. "I know you
can clear him."

"You have evidence to prove his innocence?" asked Blake.

"That you can easily uncover."

He slowly swung about. Though with all his powerful will he strove to
control himself, he was profoundly agitated, and he spoke with a very
great effort.

"You have put me in a most embarrassing situation, Katherine."

She caught her breath.

"You mean?"

"I mean that I should like to help you, but--but----"

"Yes? Yes?"

"But I cannot."

"Cannot! You mean--you refuse his case?"

"It pains me, but I must."

She grew as white as death.

"Oh!" she breathed. "Oh!" She gazed at him, lips wide, in utter
dismay.

Suddenly she seized his arm. "But you have not yet thought it
over--you have not considered," she cried rapidly. "I cannot take
no for your answer. I beg you, I implore you, t