"Do not speak of that, child; but tell me if your mother has not been all that a mother could be to you?"
"Everything, father, only I wish mother would have let me help her to bear the sorrow I know she carries in her heart. Ah! yes, mother has been ever so loving and kind."
"And your brother Herbert, Jennie, what of him?"
Jennie sighed and answered after a moment of hesitation.
"I fear, father, that Herbert loves himself more than all else in the world. He is a strange being, and one I confess I cannot understand."
"Yet you love him devotedly?" eagerly asked Vance Bernard.
"I would not be a true woman, father, could I not love my own brother, for he has been good to me, and means well; but why all these questions, father?"
"Because I have a secret to tell you."
"A secret to tell me?"
"Yes, and one that may grieve you deeply, must do so, in fact; but still it is best for you to know it now, especially since that young coxcomb of a lieutenant has been here."