“I do believe you, too! But can’t there be some mistake?”
“If there had been the slightest chance I should have discovered it before now, but there isn’t. It is God’s truth. All these years Father has been safe only because Adoniah Phillips refused years ago to disclose his identity. It’s awful, Sis, but true.”
“It’s too awful to be true! It seems like a horrible dream.”
“You have no idea what agony it has cost me. Do you think you can go through it with me?”
“I’ll try, Harold. But, oh, it’s hard!”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you think that Father might clear the whole matter up if we should tell him all we know? Maybe he could explain things–––”
“That was the first thought that occurred to me. But the longer I worked on the case, and the more I discovered of the truth, the more impossible I saw that to be. I’m not so 326 sure that we’d want him to save his skin, anyway. He ought to face the music for his wrong just the same as any other man.”
Elizabeth did not once take her gaze from her brother’s face, while she spoke slowly and distinctly: “Father will not be afraid to face the truth, even though it may mean financial ruin. He is brave, and he is honest now. I shall tell him all.”
“Don’t be too hasty, Bets. I admire your spunk. But answer me this: did it strike you as strange the way Father acted that night when I announced my contemplated trip to Australia to look up Phillips?”