"Quite ready."
"Then did you ever hear of any one in our family named Paul?"
"Y-yes—"
"Who was he?"
It was some time before he told the story, but trust a girl to make a man speak when she wishes it! He softened the recital in every possible way, but trust a girl again to read between the lines when she wants to!
"And didn't he ever come back?" she asked.
"No; you see he couldn't very well. There was an accident out West—somebody killed—anyhow, he was blamed for it. Queer, isn't it?" he broke off, trying to relieve the subject. "The Kaiser can start a war and kill millions. That's glory. But if some poor devil loses his head—"
Mary wasn't through yet.
"You say he's dead!" she asked.
"Oh, yes, years ago. He must have been dead—oh, let me see—about fifteen or twenty years, I guess."