"Yes; I am your brother."
"My real, live, long lost brother?"
"Yes."
"Now I see what you have been driving at all this time. You say you are my brother, that my father is your father. Now explain."
"That's not so easy, Lucy. I would much rather your father would do that. But I can tell you a little, for it's very little I know—and, Lucy, that little is not pleasant."
"But I must know." Her face was serious again. She was bracing herself bravely too.
"I was born outside the marriage relation, and your father was my father!"
That was plain enough—brutally plain. The girl turned to marble. Had he killed her?
"Go on," she whispered.
"No more now—some other time."