"All right, Jane, only I can't imagine anything terrible enough to stop this happiness of mine unless you're already married--and have been concealing it from us all this time----!" In spite of herself Jane laughed at that, and Allison breathed more freely now the tenseness was gone out of her voice. His hands went out and grasped hers. "At least I can do this," he pleaded, and Jane lifted her eyes, now serious again, and smiled tenderly, letting her hands stay in his passively. "Listen, Allison--my father!" "I know, Jane, dear--I heard it long ago. Your father was a forger! What do you suppose I care? He probably had some overpowering temptation and yielded, never dreaming but he would be able to make it right. You can't make me believe that any parent of _yours_ was actually bad! And besides, if he was, it wouldn't be _you_----" "Allison! Listen!" broke in Jane gravely, stopping the torrent of words with which he was attempting to silence her. "It isn't what you think at all. My father _wasn't_ a forger! He was a good man!" "He wasn't!" exclaimed Allison joyously. "Then what in thunder? Why didn't you tell 'em so, Jane?" He tried to draw her to him, but she still resisted. "That's just it, Allison, I can't. I _never_ can----" "Well, then _I_ will! You shan't have a thing like that hanging over you----!" "But that is just what you _must not do_. And you _can't_ do it, either, if I don't tell you about it, for you wouldn't have a thing to say, nor any way to prove it. And I won't tell you, Allison, ever, unless you will promise----!" Allison was sobered in an instant. "Jane, don't you know me well enough to be sure I would not betray any confidence you put in me?" "I thought so----" said Jane, smiling through her tears. "Dear!" said Allison in a tone that was a caress, full of longing and sympathy. Jane sat up bravely and began her story. "When I was twelve years old my mother died. That left father and me alone, and we became very close comrades indeed. He was a wonderful father!" Allison's fingers answered with a warm pressure of sympathy and interest.