Angus Fitzpatrick heaved an inaudible sigh of relief. The old squaw, then, had been discreet.
“What was the subject of her conversation?” he asked, sharply.
The girl hesitated and flushed.
“Horrid hints regarding Don—Captain McTavish,” she said, finally. Then, her indignation rising once more, she went on swiftly: “Just the sort of thing I have heard from you, from Tee-ka-mee, from every one who has a right or privilege to mention such things. Now, father, I have come in here to find out just what this thing is. You can tell me in five minutes, if you will. Ah, yes, you can,” she insisted, as the factor started to deny. “Yes, you can; old Maria said so, and I believe her. After last summer when he was here, and I—when I grew to be very fond of his company, you suddenly began putting things into my mind, uncertain hints, slurring intimations, significant gestures—all the things that can damage a character without positively defaming it. Something had happened! Something had come to your notice that made you do all that. You never liked Donald, but you didn't really oppose him before that time. Now, I want to know what this is.” Her voice hardened. “I'm tired of being treated like a schoolgirl; I'm twenty-four, and old enough to think for myself, and I demand to know what mystery has forced a black shadow between us.”
She stopped, breathless, the color going and coming in her cheeks like the ebb and flow of northern lights in the sky.
Old Angus Fitzpatrick, amazed at the vehemence of his usually passive daughter, had risen to his feet. To make him furious, it was only necessary to demand something. This the girl, in excellent imitation of his own manner, had done, and he resented it highly, glaring at her through his spectacles.
“Do you mean to stand there and say that you demand that I tell you something?” he roared. “Well, I refuse, that's all.”
And he turned angrily away from her. The girl mastered herself, and asked in a cold, even voice:
“Will you tell me this? Is there anything definite against Donald McTavish?
“Do you demand to know?