er to his uncle,
and really intended to lay violent hands on him; but of course he could
not. That defenseless old man, that pathetic figure seemed to wilt before
his piercing eyes, seemed to shrivel and literally fall to pieces. In hot
disgust, Gilbert could only cry out:

"How dare you! How dare you, I say! This is the crowning interference!" He
had put his hands behind his back and braced his shoulders, fearing that he
would not be responsibile for what he did.

Uncle Henry, seeing that he was safe, came back to the fray.

"Well, you _couldn't_ marry her," indicating Lucia, "an' you _wouldn't_
marry _her_," pointing to Angela. "I guess I got some right to protect
myself, ain't I?"

"Protect yourself!" repeated Gilbert, cynicism in his tone. He turned his
back on them all and moved to the window. His very shoulders revealed the
mental struggle he was going through.

Morgan Pell's eyes, all this time, had never left his wife. He studied her
countenance as a pathologist might that of a person thought to be insane,
and Lucia almost gave way under his relentless analysis. "Red," seeing the
turn affairs had taken, quietly drew his gun, and Angela, frightened, put
her hands over her shell-like ears. If there was one thing she dreaded, it
was a shot. She was trembling like a leaf. She closed her eyes. She knew
that "Red," in his devotion to Gilbert, would not hesitate to kill Pell.

With an inscrutable expression, Morgan Pell murmured, "H'm!" Then he turned
swiftly on Uncle Henry and asked, "You have proof, I suppose?"

"Proof?" cried Uncle Henry.

"Yes."

"My Gawd," the invalid fairly shrieked, "all you gotter do is look at 'em!
I been watchin' 'em ever since you came."

At this, Gilbert honestly believed that Uncle Henry had lost his reason.
Surely this was the insane delusion of a senile old man; and he said as
much to Pell.

"Senile yourself!" cried Uncle Henry, mad through and through, feeling he
was immune from any attack. "Gol darn you!"

So there was no shutting Uncle Henry up! Gilbert, in despair, turned to
Pell. "You don't believe it! You can't believe it!" he said. "This is
madness--"

Pell said not a word; he seemed to be in deep thought. Suddenly his whole
manner changed, his voice as well, and he faced Gilbert frankly.

"Certainly I don't believe it. My confidence in my wife is implicit."

The metamorphosis was unbelievable. At least Uncle Henry thought so.

"Well, I always heard that husband