But the thing that bowled him over was that he was known to have money in his possession, a considerable amount, for which he could not or would not account." "Still, I don't see that you were so much to blame," said Katherine soothingly.

"If the man was accused and could not clear himself, then plainly there was something wrong somewhere: and after all you simply held your tongue; it was not as if you had stolen anything, letting the blame fall on him, or had falsely accused him in any way." "Just the arguments with which I comforted myself when I kept silent and profited by the downfall of a man who was blameless," 'Duke Radford replied.

"But though there may be a sort of truth in them, it is not real truth, and I have been paying the price ever since of that guilty silence of mine." "Father, why do you tell me all this now ?" cried Katherine protestingly.

Never in her heart would she have quite so much admiration for her father again, and the knowledge brought keen suffering with it.
He drew a long breath that was like a sobbing sigh; only too well did he understand what he had done, but he had counted the cost, and was not going to shirk the consequences.
"Because I've got the feeling that you will be able in some way to make the wrong right.

I don't know how, and I can't see what can be done, only somehow the conviction has grown to a certainty in my mind, and now I can rest about it," he replied slowly.
"Has this trouble made you so restless and ill ?" she asked, thinking that his burden of mental suffering had grown beyond his powers of endurance since he had been keeping his bed.
"I suppose it may have helped.