No answer.
"Madeline, what is it you wish to do?"
"What I wish to do, I can not. I can tell you what I intend to do," sitting very erect.
"Then what do you intend?"
"I intend," turning her eyes away from them both, and fixing them moodily upon the fire, "to follow up the path in which I have set my feet. I intend to oust a base adventuress from the home that was my mother's; to wrest the fortune that is mine from the grasp of a bad old man, and make him suffer for the wrong he did my mother. I intend to laugh at Lucian Davlin, when he is safe behind prison bars; to hunt down and frustrate an impostor, and by so doing, clear the name of Philip Girard before all the world." Her voice was low, but very firm, dogged almost, in its tone.
He turned a perplexed face toward Olive.
"What does it all mean?" he asked.
"What she says," replied Mrs. Girard, flushing with suppressed excitement. "She has found a clue that may lead to Philip's release."
He moved nearer to the girl, and taking her hand, drew her toward him, until she faced him. "Madeline, is this true?"
"Yes."