The poor girl was fearfully wrought up, and at this point lapsed into violent hysterics that alarmed both her companions.
With the child still hugged to his bosom and a face like chalk, Mr. Temple strode to the mantle and touched an electric button.
"Send Mrs. Maxfield immediately—Miss Minnie is ill," he said when the butler appeared.
Then he attempted to soothe her, calling her every endearing name he could think of, and assuring her that there was no story—she simply dreamed or had a horrible nightmare.
But she was past all reason, and when the housekeeper appeared she was borne up-stairs in an almost unconscious condition and put to bed, while Clifford quietly left the house, but with an exceedingly heavy heart.
A physician was summoned, and after powerful anodynes had been administered the child fell into a profound stupor, from which she did not arouse until the next morning.
But, of course, when the effects of the sleeping potion wore off and memory returned, the girl, who was mature beyond her years, sent for her father and insisted upon being told the truth about herself.
Mr. Temple tried to evade her as he had done the night previous, by trying to convince her that she had only been dreaming; but she asserted that she knew better, and appealed to her mother—who had been out at a reception the night before—to make her father explain what she had overheard.
Mr. Temple was in despair—he felt that the web of fate was closing around him, and, for the first time in his life, fell into a violent passion with her, sternly commanding her to stop questioning him regarding what was none of her affairs, but had been purely a matter of business between himself and Mr. Faxon.
Of course, the curiosity of both Mrs. Temple and Philip, who was also present, was aroused, and, upon their insistence, Minnie faithfully rehearsed the conversation between her father and Clifford, and, thus brought to bay, the wretched millionaire was forced to make a clean breast of everything.