Hilda started, and then said, very placidly, "Yes."
"And you thought that he might be guilty of 'awful crimes?'"
"I feared so."
"Had you lived any time with your father?"
"All my life."
Obed Chute said nothing more though Hilda seemed to expect it; so, finding him silent, she went on without regarding him; though, if she had known this man, she would have seen that by those words she at once lost all that sympathy and consideration which thus far he had felt for her.
"On deciphering that paper of which I have spoken I found that it charged my father, General Pomeroy, with several crimes, all equally abhorrent. I will show you the paper itself, and my interpretation of it line by line, so that you may see for yourself the agony that such a discovery would naturally produce in the mind of a daughter. I will also show you those letters which you yourself wrote to my father many years ago."
Saying this, Hilda produced some papers, which she laid on the table before Obed Chute.
The first was the writing in cipher.
The second was her own interpretation, such as she had already shown to Gualtier and to Zillah.