She looked away for a moment. "I sang for him—when he was in jail," she replied. "I belonged to the Rescue Band."
A shadow fell again upon the father's face.
"I did not know it," he said, feeling something mysterious here—something which lay outside his grasp. "Have you seen him meanwhile? I suppose you must have done so."
"Once, in Marmion, some four years ago."
"Ah! Now I understand his visit to Marmion," said Mr. Excell, with a sudden smile. "I thought he came to see Jack and me. He really came to see you. Am I right?"
"Yes," she replied. "He wanted me to go back with him, but I—I—couldn't do so."
"I know—I know," he replied hastily. "He had no right to ask it of you—poor boy."
"It seems now as though I had no right to refuse. I might have helped him. If he should die now there would be an incurable ache here"—she lifted her hand to her throat; "so long as I lived I should not forgive myself."