On the impulse of the moment he caught up a small Bible that lay upon a table close at hand, and pressed his lips upon it while he exclaimed in the deep, convincing tones of truth: "Leith, I solemnly swear to you that I am innocent of the crime laid to my charge, so help me God." Something in the man's deep earnestness, and in his look of suffering, staggered Richard Leith's doubts and fears, and made him feel that he had been a brute to doubt his daughter's agonized declarations of innocence. He exclaimed with sudden fervor and earnestness: "Mr. Desmond, it is but fair to tell you that I have found the girl, Mary Smith, and that she exonerates you, too." "I was sure she would, although she despises me," cried Mr. Desmond. "I admit that I behaved despicably to her. I tried to get up a flirtation with her, but she scorned me with the pride of a queen, and the affair went no further. I believed her as pure and cold as the snow. No one was more amazed than myself when I learned the truth through my wife's causeless jealousy." "You say 'causeless jealousy,' Desmond," Mr. Leith remonstrated, gravely, "but you forget that ever since your marriage you have persistently wounded your loving and sensitive wife by the most open and flagrant flirtations, thus giving her the greatest cause to doubt your fidelity." Mr. Desmond looked thoroughly ashamed and penitent at the perfectly truthful charge. "You speak the truth, I have behaved shamefully," he replied. "But I have had my lesson now. I never knew how much I loved and honored my sweet and beautiful wife until in her righteous wrath she deserted me. But if she will believe me this time and return to me, I will never offend her again by my foolish propensities. I will never even look at another woman. I am quite cured of flirting." He spoke so soberly and earnestly that Mr. Leith was fain to believe him, but he answered gravely: "Your wife is so thoroughly incensed against you, that she will never believe even your sworn word without additional proof." "But how can I prove it to her?" cried the anxious husband. "She would not believe Mary Smith's denial, and she refuses to credit mine." "There is only one way out of the trouble," the lawyer said, gravely. "And that?" Mr. Desmond asked, anxiously. "Is to find out the man who is really in fault, and obtain his sworn statement," Richard Leith replied. "The girl will give us the necessary information, of course," Mr. Desmond exclaimed, his spirits rising. "On the contrary, she obstinately refuses to do so. She makes a most perplexing mystery of her unhappy situation." Mr. Desmond looked uneasy and perplexed a moment, then he exclaimed, confidently: "It is only a question of blackmail then. She will tell the truth if a golden bribe is offered her. Depend upon it, she is only waiting for that."