"Hold?" he asked. "My dear child, there is nothing of the sort." But when the truth was thrust directly at him the Colonel was a poor actor.
"There is something between you," Judith said.
"I have come to see Mr. Ellis in a different light," he explained. "That is all there is to it."
"Father," cried Judith, "tell me!"
He turned away from her and began to walk up and down, but she held his sleeve and stopped him.
"Father!" she beseeched.
He tried to meet her eye, and failed; he looked at the carpet and shifted his feet. But still he felt her insistent grasp upon his arm, and at last he spoke huskily.
"Judith, I owe him money."
"Oh!" she gasped, and fell away from him. "Father, what have you done?" Yet feeling that she had not even the right to reproach him, she said no more. As she stood with bowed head, he took courage.