"You see, he did give back the letters," he said.
Madam Crewe clutched the arms of her chair, sitting forward, gazing fixedly into space. When she spoke it was as if she spoke in a dream, filling out the bailiff's tale.
"I had no letters and, as for the pocket, 'twas never seen from that day on. My father insisted 'twas a ruse on my—the bailiff's part, his offering to return them. He said he had kept them to use as a means of blackmail. I was too desperate to care. My father swore the man would presently show his hand, but he did not, nor his face either. I never saw him again. At first I would hear no ill of him, but my father and the attorney told me I was too young, too ignorant of the world, to know how base the creature was, what a narrow escape I had had. There were nights—many and many of them—when, here and abroad, I cried myself to sleep, regretting my escape hadn't been narrower.
"Now, sir, you know the story of your grandfather and me. It is all very long ago. The wonder is, the memory has stayed by me all these years."
For the first time within her recollection, Katherine felt herself drawn to her grandmother. It was as if a means of communication had been opened up between them. She would have liked to go to her and lay her arms about her shoulders lovingly.
Dr. Ballard broke the silence.
"The truth lies between your word, and my grandfather's. I believe he was honest. You believe the contrary."
Madam Crewe was silent.
The doctor continued. "Now, as you say, all that took place very long ago. Even granting my grandfather's motives to have been the worst, I count myself out of the tangle. I stand on my own feet, don't I? If I have built up my life on honest principle, I can't see how you can reasonably hold me to account for the sins or fancied sins of my forbears. Our democracy isn't worth the name, if it doesn't admit a man's a man for a' that. I love your granddaughter. I wish to marry her. I ask your consent."
Katherine could not see her grandmother's face for the sudden mist that had gathered to trouble her vision. But she heard the familiar voice distinctly enough.