She tried to tell him, but could not. The love and honor of him that had been the faith of her life were still alive. She could not say the words that would bring him to shame. Suddenly she pointed to the crumpled paper on the table. The colonel snatched it and pulled it open while she turned away. He recognized it at the first glance. "Well," he said, holding his head high and looking at her with a defiant air, "what of it?" She made no answer, and he went on violently: "What's there wrong about this to make you cry as if you'd lost everything in the world, and Gault to sneak out of the house like a thief?" "What's wrong about it?" she burst out. "What's wrong about you to make you ask such a question?" "My dear, don't be so violent," said the colonel, trying to assume his old jaunty manner. "It's all a very simple matter, easily explained." "Then explain it, father--explain it. Oh, if there's anything to be said, say it!" "It's merely a business matter, a financial transaction between myself and Gault--nothing that concerns you." "Oh, father, it concerns me more than anything that has ever happened to me in my life before." Her tone wrung the colonel's soul. He tried to silence his pain and fear by a sudden attempt to divert the blame from himself. "Did that dog--that mean, underhanded sneak--come here to-night, when he knew I was out, to show you that paper?" His manner and words horrified her, and she shrank from him. "I found the paper in your coat. He tried to take it from me. He never breathed to me or let me suspect what you were doing. To-night, when I found the paper, he tried to make me think it was all right, quite an ordinary thing--that you had done what every one else would have done." "Well, then, why do you get so worked up about it? Why should a business transaction between him and me put you into such a state of mind?" "A business transaction? Oh, father, have you deceived yourself, or are you trying to deceive me? What has been the matter with you? How could you do it! How could you forget yourself that way--yourself and me!" The colonel's bravado began to give way, but he tried to take a last stand. "If there was anything wrong, as you seem to think, in what I did, you shouldn't blame me for it. I did it for you. I was trying to make you comfortable and make things a little easier for you. I was only trying the best way I knew to make you happy." "Make me happy!" she repeated. "Did you think it would make me happy to have a man think I was being sold to him?" The words burst from her, vibrating with all the anguish of the last two hours. They struck the colonel like a dagger in his heart. "Oh, Viola!" he said. "Viola--don't!"