Dermott looked down at the bowed head upon his old desk, his eyes moist, his lips twitching.
"Perhaps," he broke in, the angry light still in his eyes, "ye'll tell me who accuses me of this business?"
For answer she extended toward him the yellow paper which Barney had given her, signed with John Marix's initials.
"And so you believed Barney, although ye know his weakness for jumping at conclusions? Ye must have believed him, for my name's
not mentioned here," he said, looking at the paper.
"He told me Mr. Marix had intimated to him that you were behind the attack."
"Ah! and so it's Marix that's been misusing my name, is it?" he cried, his eyes narrowed. "I'll settle with him!" And then, "Ye love Ravenel, Katrine?"
"Yes," she answered: "there's just nothing else in life for me."
"And after all that's gone between him and me, you are asking me to help him?"
"Dermott," she said, gravely, sobbing between the words, "I came to you because I have always known the greatness, the selflessness of you, and I trust you."