The tears stood in her eyes suddenly uplifted to his, and impulsively the man encircled her with his arm.
"You know I care, dear," he exclaimed recklessly. "You are not afraid to tell me."
"No, no; you have been so kind, so true. I can tell you everything—only it is so hard to confess the truth about my father."
"You suspect he was implicated?" he asked in astonishment, "that he actually had a part in the plot?"
She looked at him gravely, down into his very soul.
"Yes, and—and that hurts more than all the rest."
CHAPTER XXXII
WORDS OF LOVE
Hamlin was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say that would comfort or help. He had never suspected this, and yet he could not refrain altogether from experiencing a feeling of relief. Deeply as he sympathized with her in this trouble, still the man could not but be conscious of those barriers formerly existing between them which this discovery had instantly swept away. Now they could meet upon a level, as man and woman. No longer could rank intervene; not even the stain of his own court-martial. Possibly she dreamed of what was passing in his mind, for she suddenly lifted her eyes to his.