"Oh, I'm sure of it. He is not a party to his father's schemes. If James Bansemer has not already told Graydon, he never will. It is not his plan to do so; his only object has been to browbeat me into submission. David, it will all come out right in the end, won't it? You'll forgive me?" "Yes, dear; but this man," and David Cable shook with emotion as he spoke, "will have to answer to me. There will be no more to fear," he said reassuringly; "I'll crush him as I would a snake." "David, you must not---" "Don't worry," he broke in; "I'll attend to him and see that no harm comes to anyone else. That man has no business among honest people." "But, David, I was not honest with you," she confessed. "That was a long time ago, and she's as much mine as she is yours. So, what's the odds now? It's a facer, I'll admit, but it can't be helped." It was thus that the man whose anger, only a few hours before had led him almost to crime, now readily absolved her of any blame. "Poor child, poor child!" she moaned; "it will break her heart. She is so proud and so happy." "Yes, she's proud. There is good blood in her. I don't wonder now that I used to think she was such a marvel. She's--she's not just the same sort of stock that we are, take it as you will." "She never must know the truth, David." "She's bound to find it out, dear. We'd better tell her. It will be easier for her. Bansemer's fangs must be made harmless forever. He shan't bother her. She'd better hear the story from us and not from him." "But Graydon? She'll lose him, David." "I'm not so sure of it. She's worthy of any man's love and we must know that Graydon loves her. I'll trust to that. But, first of all, we must put it beyond the power of James Bansemer to injure her in any shape or form. Then, when I go after him--Graydon or no Graydon--he'll know that there is such a place as hell." "Be rational, David. Let us take our time and think well, dear. I can't bear the thought of the story that will go out concerning me--how I deceived you about Jane for years and years. What will people think of me? What will they say?" she almost wailed. "Frances," said he, his voice tense and earnest, "that is between you and me. I intend to say to the world, if occasion demands, that I have known from the first that Jane was not our child. That will be---" "Oh, David, you CAN'T say that," she cried joyously. "I shall say it, dear old partner. I shall say that you took her from the asylum with my consent. There is only James Bansemer to call me a liar, and he will not dare!" "That old man Droom, David--his clerk. The man who saved me--he knows." "He is in the boat with his master. He DID save you, though. I'll spare him much for that. And I have more to fear from him than you think. Frances, I am sure he saw me night before last down there at the sea wall. He knows--I am morally certain--that you were not attacked by a robber."