"Miss Marsh, will you tell me why you prefer to live here under these conditions rather than go and live with your uncle and aunt, where you would have so many more social advantages?"
The girl hesitated for a moment. Then she said:
"I—I prefer not to say."
"Is it not because you hate your Uncle James?" demanded Mr. Cooley.
The inspector held up his hand warningly to the lawyer.
"Please!"
"I do not hate him," said Paula. "I am afraid of him."
"Are you afraid of yourself?" continued the inspector. "You told Dr. Zacharie that you could not control yourself in his presence."
"Yes," she cried, with a little shudder. "I—I am afraid of myself. He inspires me with hateful thoughts, and I believe that hateful thoughts injure the person who thinks them." Suddenly she turned and again found Dr. Zacharie staring at her. She stopped and almost hysterically she cried: "I—I can't answer you if—— I can't think if that man sits there and stares at me. Won't you please ask him to go?"
Dr. Zacharie smiled indulgently and shrugged his shoulders.