"It's monstrous!" she cried.
"If North is innocent—" began the general.
"Father!" She regarded him with a look of horror and astonishment. "You don't like him! It's that, isn't it?" she added after a moment's silence.
"I don't like any one who gets into a scrape such as this!" replied the general with miserable and unnecessary heat.
"But it wasn't his fault—he couldn't help it!"
"I don't suppose he could," replied her father grimly.
She rose and came close to his side.
"Father!" she said in a tone of entreaty, placing a hand on his arm.
"What is it, dear?"
There was both tenderness and concern in his keen gray eyes as he glanced up into her troubled face.