, "don't take on so, I didn't mean
anything. I was just trying to dope it out; get it through my bean what
in thunder----! Say! Did _he_ TELL _you_ he wanted you to marry those
guys?"

"Oh, no, he left word--it was his dying request."

"Who'd he request it to?"

"My stepmother."

"H'm! I thought so! How'd you know he did? How'd you know but she was
lyin'?"

"No," said Betty sorrowfully, "she wasn't lying, she showed me the paper
it was written on. There couldn't be any mistake. And his name was
signed to it, his dear hand-writing, just as he always wrote it with the
little quirl to the S that wasn't like anybody else. It went through me
just like a knife when I saw it, that my dear father should have asked
me to do what was so very very hard for me to think of. It was so much
harder to have it come that way. If he had only asked me himself and we
could have talked it over, perhaps he would have helped me to be strong
enough to do it, but to have _her_ have to _tell me_! She felt that
herself. She tried to be kind, I think. She said she wanted to have him
wake me up and tell me himself, but she saw his strength was going and
he was so anxious to have her write it down quick and let him sign it
that she did as he asked----"

"Well, you may depend on it he never wrote it at all--or anyhow, never
knew what he was signing. Like as not she dragged it out of him some way
while he was out of his mind or so near dying he didn't know what he was
about. Besides, they mightta some of 'em forged his name. It's easy to
copy signatures. Lotsa people do it real good. If I was you I wouldn't
think another mite about it. If he was a man like you say he is, he
couldn'ta done a thing like that to his own little girl, not on his
life! It ain't like real fathers and mothers to. I know, fer I've got a
mother that's a peach and no mistake! No, you may depend on it, he never
knew a thing about that, and marrying a guy like that is the last thing
on earth he'd want you to do."

"Oh, do you really think so? Oh, are you _sure_?" cried Betty, clinging
to Jane eagerly, the tears raining down her white cheeks. "I've thought
so a thousand times, but I didn't dare trust myself to decide."

"Yes, I'm sure!" said Jane, gathering her in her arms and hugging her
tight, just as she would have done with a little sister who had waked up
in the night with a bad dream. "Now, look here, you stop crying and
don't you worry another bit. Just tell me the