"It is very hard to tell. You know I never knew my parents. Both my mother and my father died on the day I was born. I seem to know my mother, because auntie loved her so much, and has talked to me so much about her all my life. But she never talked to me much about my father. His family was a good one--his father having been a banker, with some reputation as an artist also, and my father was his partner in business. But that is all I know of my father--no, that isn't what I meant to say. I meant to say that that is all my aunt ever told me about him, and all I knew until the night when you asked me--questions. After you went away that evening, I went to my room and thought the matter out. I have already told you what conclusions I reached. When I had decided, I went to auntie's room and sat on the side of her bed and told her everything. She cried very bitterly--I didn't understand why at first. After a while she said she didn't at all agree with me in my conclusions, and added: "'If the things you mention were all, Bab, I should tell you to stop thinking of them, and let Mr. Duncan judge for himself. But there is something else, Bab--something very dreadful. I never intended to tell you of it, but now I must. You would find it out very soon, for Tandy's wife knows it, and if she heard that there was anything between you and Mr. Duncan, she would make haste to talk of it--particularly after what has happened between Tandy and Mr. Duncan. Then you would never forgive me for not telling you.' "She went on then, and told me what I must tell you. She told me, Mr. Duncan, that I am the daughter of a Thief!" The girl paused, unable to go on. Duncan saw that she was suffering acutely, and he determined to spare her. "You must stop now, Barbara," he said in a caressing tone. "You are overwrought. I will hear the rest another time--when you feel stronger and send for me. I am going to say good-night now, so that you may rest. But before I go I want to say that nothing you have told me can make the least difference in my feelings, or my desires, or my purposes. You _are_ what you _are_. Nothing else matters. When you feel strong enough, I will come again and persuade you to be my wife. Good-night!" As she stood facing him, with unutterable distress in every line of her face, he leaned forward impulsively, but with extreme gentleness, and reverently kissed her. XXV TEMPLE AND TANDY On the morning after his consultation with Captain Will Hallam, Richard Temple had his first interview with Tandy. Jewett, the hotel proprietor, walked with him to the X National Bank, took him into the bank parlor, and introduced him to the president, intimating that he would probably wish to do some business with the bank, and assuring Tandy that the young man was "as square as they make 'em."