“He is alive,” said Halleck. “There is something in this paper for you to see,--something you _must_ see--” “I can bear anything if he is not dead. Where--what is it? Show it to me--” The paper shook in the hands which Halleck released; her eyes strayed blindly over its columns; he had to put his finger on the place before she could find it. Then her tremor ceased, and she seemed without breath or pulse while she read it through. She fetched a long, deep sigh, and passed her hand over her eyes, as if to clear them; staying herself unconsciously against Halleck's breast, and laying her trembling arm along his arm till her fingers knit themselves among his fingers, she read it a second time and a third. Then she dropped the paper, and turned to look up at him. “Why!” she cried, as if she had made it out at last, while an awful, joyful light of hope flashed into her face. “_It is a mistake_! Don't you see? He thinks that I never came back! He thinks that I meant to abandon him. That I--that I--But you _know_ that I came back,--you came back _with_ me! Why, I wasn't gone an hour,--a _half_-hour, hardly. Oh, Bartley, poor Bartley! He thought I could leave him, and take his child from him; that I could be so wicked, so heartless--Oh, no, no, no! Why, I only stayed away that little time because I was _afraid_ to go back! Don't you remember how I told you I was afraid, and wanted you to come in with me?” Her exaltation broke in a laugh. “But we can explain it now, and it will be all right. He will see--he will understand--I will tell him just how it was--Oh, Flavia, Flavia, we've found papa, we've found papa! Quick!” She whirled away toward the stairs, but her father caught her by the arm. “Marcia!” he shouted, in his old raucous voice, “You've got to understand! This”--he hesitated, as if running over all terms of opprobrium in his mind, and he resumed as if he had found them each too feeble--“_Bartley_ hasn't acted under any mistake.” He set the facts before her with merciless clearness, and she listened with an audible catching of the breath at times, while she softly smoothed her forehead with her left hand. “I don't believe it,” she said when he had ended. “Write to him, tell him what I say, and you will see.”