Brandon of the Engineers

"Besides," he resumed, "when everybody doubted me, you showed your

confidence. You wrote and said----"

"But you told me you tore up the letter," Clare interrupted.

Dick got confused. "I did; I was a fool, but the way things had been

going was too much for me. You ought to understand and try to make

allowances."

"I cannot understand why you want to marry a girl you think a thief."

Pulling himself together, Dick gave her a steady look. "I can't let that

pass, though if I begin to argue I'm lost. In a way, I'm at your mercy,

because my defense can only make matters worse. But I tried to explain on

board the launch."

"The explanation wasn't very convincing," Clare remarked, turning her

head. "Do you still believe I took your papers?"

"The plans were in my pocket when I reached your house," said Dick, who

saw he must be frank. "I don't know that you took them, and if you did, I

wouldn't hold you responsible; but they were taken."

"You mean that you blame my father for their loss?"

Dick hesitated. He felt that she was giving him a last opportunity, but

he could not seize it.

"If I pretended I didn't blame him, you would find me out and it would

stand between us. I wish I could say I'd dropped the papers somewhere or

find some other way; but the truth is best."

Clare turned to him with a hot flush and an angry sparkle in her eyes.

"Then it's unthinkable that you should marry the daughter of the man whom

you believe ruined you. Don't you see that you can't separate me from my

father? We must stand together."

"No," said Dick doggedly, knowing that he was beaten, "I don't see that.

I want you; I want to take you away from surroundings and associations

that must jar. Perhaps it was foolish to think you would come, but you

helped to save my life when I was ill, and I believe I was then something

more to you than a patient. Why have you changed?"

She looked at him with a forced and rather bitter smile. "Need you ask?

Can't you, or won't you, understand? Could I marry my victim, which is

what you are if your suspicions are justified? If they are not, you have

offered me an insult I cannot forgive. It is unbearable to be thought the

daughter of a thief."

Dick nerved himself for a last effort. "What does your father's character

matter? I want you. You will be safe from everything that could hurt you

if you come to me." He hesitated and then went on in a hoarse, determined

voice: "You must come. I can't let you live among those plotters and

gamblers. It's impossible. Clare, when I was ill and you thought me

asleep, I watched you sitting in the moonlight. Your face was wonderfully

gentle and I thought----"