"I found out to-night, an hour ago, that your father had a child by her—he has confessed it to Vixley and Madam Spoll. They got it out of him, somehow. That's how they have got a hold on him—and who else should this child be but I, who lived with her? It accounts for his tenderness for these things, for his scrap-book, his going down to the Siskiyou Hotel—everything! Oh, it's certain! It is hopeless!"
She stood gazing at him, bewildered.
"If he had an illegitimate child it must be you, of course. But it is strange I never heard of that!"
"It was all so long ago—before you were born—that it happened. Madam Grant had no friends—except, perhaps, your mother—and it could have been kept a secret easily enough."
She gave a low moan and sank down upon a box limply. Her eyes were fixed on the candle flame; she seemed to be studying some possible way of escape. She looked up at him once, and then down again, for his eyes were desperate. He stood watching her, and for some time neither spoke. He put his hand to his head, stroking his hair over his ear mechanically, while his mind whirled. Below a door slammed. She rose, shaking back her hair, her eyes half-closed, her hands on her breast.
"I understand, now," she said slowly. "It must have been that which drew me to you at first. But if you are my brother, surely I have the more right to love you! Oh, Francis, I do love you! What does it matter how, so long as you are dear to me?" She rose, and put out her hand again, but, at the touch he shrank away from her.
"Oh, no, I can't stand that! It's all over, that tenderness. I can't trust myself with you. It's not a brother's love I feel for you. It's so much more that you will always be a fearful temptation to me."
"Can't you overcome that?" As she held the candle before her, her face had never appeared more noble; for a moment she seemed as far away from him as she had been at first, alone on spiritual heights to him inaccessible.
"Can you?" he asked.
She dropped her eyes. "If we had found this out before, it would have been easier."