"Maizie wouldn't leave her mother." With a flicker of defiance Robert answered him. "I was young, rudderless, after my people went East.... A little wild, I guess."
"So you sought consolation?"
"Call it what you like," the other answered. "Some things are too strong for men. They overwhelm one--like Fate."
Frank began pacing back and forth, his fingers opening and shutting spasmodically.
"Uncle Bob," he said at length, "... after you married, what became--"
"Her mother sent the child East--to a sister. She was well raised--educated. If she'd only stayed there, in that Massachusetts town!"
"Then--Bertha didn't know?"
"Not till she came to San Francisco, after her mother's death. She had to come to settle the estate. The mother left her everything--a string of tenements. She was rich."
"Bertha came to you, then, I suppose."
"Yes, she came to me," said Robert Windham.