Mr. Chambers stared long at her, astounded as he had never before been in his life. "There's something behind all this," he said, abruptly.
She was silent.
Even in this tense moment his readiness did not desert him. Sometimes one is stronger than two, sometimes weaker. This time one would be weaker.
"Mr. Aldrich," he said quietly, "would you be so kind as to leave us. There are matters here to be talked over only between Helen and me."
Helen felt the moment before her she had for a month been fearing—felt herself on the verge of the greatest crisis of her life. "Yes—please do, David. It's best for us two to be alone."
She gave David her hand. He pressed it and silently withdrew.
Mr. Chambers stepped close to Helen and gazed searchingly into her face. "There's something back of this. You're telling me all?"
"I can't—please don't ask me, father!"
"You propose—he refuses," he said meditatively. He studied her face for several moments. "I think I know you, my child.—I would have staked my fortune, my life, that you would never have given yourself to any but a man of the highest character."
His face knitted with thought; he began to nod his head ever so slightly. "I recall now that there were some queer circumstances connected with his taking the money. His motives, what he did with it, did not seem particularly plausible to me."