"In the private drawer of Lynde Pyne's desk."
"Lynde Pyne! In Heaven's name what do you know of him?"
"He is my employer."
"Lynde Pyne? Impossible! And you stood by his side, looking at Evelyn Chandler's portrait?"
"No. I saw it in the drawer by accident. Her name was written beneath it. Dad, who is Miss Evelyn Chandler, and why should I not look at her portrait with Lynde Pyne beside me?"
"I cannot tell you that," he gasped. "I am pledged by an oath that I can never break. Child, child, what miserable fate was it that led you to Lynde Pyne's office?"
"Miserable fate?" she cried, rising and standing before him. "Is it a miserable fate that gives us bread to eat? Do you forget that we could not have lived more than a week longer from the savings of my little salary? Summer is coming on now, and lawyers do not want typewriters, or the positions are filled. See how often I have tried and failed. Oh, dad——"
"Hush!" he interrupted. "If we starve, you must not remain there! There is a reason stronger than either life or death. Leonie, you must listen to me!"
"Dad, I have no wish not to do so. There is but one thing—I am no longer a child, and you have no right to demand a thing of me without explanation. If there is a reason why I should not remain in Lynde Pyne's office, I am ready to go, though such a course seems to indicate nothing short of starvation to me, but unless you give me the reason, for both our sakes I must decline."
"You don't know what you are saying! I know your nature, your overwhelming pride. Leonie, listen! If you refuse to hear me now, some day you will hear a secret the horror of which will kill you! My darling, what am I to say? Tell me that you will give it up?"