He slipped the package into an inside pocket, never mistrusting that it had been tampered with, nor that its contents had unlocked for Sumner Dalton the door to a mystery which he had long sought to penetrate in vain.
“Thank you,” he said, as he buttoned his coat, “for caring for this; it is very precious to me; and some day I will tell you why and show you its contents. This much I will tell you now—had it been lost or destroyed, my identity would also have been destroyed.”
Editha looked up in surprise, but she asked no question.
His identity destroyed! Was it possible that Sumner Dalton’s keen eyes could have missed anything of importance within that package?
Editha accompanied him to the door, and parted from him with a simple “good-night,” and then went quietly and gravely to her own room. But she had sent him forth full of courage and hope in spite of his present loneliness and unpromising future; and that bunch of holly was the most precious thing that the world held for him that day, the fair giver excepted.
CHAPTER XII
THE ECCENTRIC CLIENT
Several months passed, and bravely did Earle Wayne battle with the world and fate.
Cheerfully, too; for, although he did not permit himself to see much of Editha, lest his purpose not to speak of love should fail him, yet in his heart he knew that she loved him, and would wait patiently until his conscience would allow him to utter the words that should bind her to him.
This he felt he had no right to do until his name could be cleared from the stain resting upon it, and he had also gained a footing and practice in the world which would warrant his asking the aristocratic Miss Dalton to be his wife. It was hard, up-hill work, however, for Notwithstanding he had passed a brilliant examination and been admitted to the bar, yet it seemed as if some unseen force or enemy was at work to press him down and keep him from climbing the ladder of either fame or wealth.
And there was such an enemy!