"Mr. Sparkley is my brother-in-law, Phil," added Mr. Gracewood. "And you are going with him, Ella?"
"Yes; Mr. Sparkley has a good chance to go into business there."
"Is your—is your mother with him?" asked Mr. Gracewood, with some embarrassment.
"She is."
I was not a little puzzled by what I heard. My good friend spoke of the mother of Ella, and I knew that she was his daughter. The mother, therefore, was his wife, as I reasoned out the problem; but I could not understand how he happened to be living in the backwoods, away from her and his child. Mr. Gracewood was silent for a time, and I began to realize that there was something unpleasant in his family relations, though the matter was incomprehensible to me.
"I suppose your mother does not speak very kindly of me," said the father, at last, with considerable emotion.
"I never heard her speak an unkind word of you, father," replied Ella, promptly; and at the same time her eyes filled with tears.
"I am glad to hear that."
"It is true, father," added the daughter, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Don't cry, Ella; all may yet be well. Perhaps I was to blame, in part."