I marveled at the girl's composure--at her quiet acceptance of the situation, when I knew well enough her shameful duplicity. Then by one of those intuitions of grace that were so charming in her she bent forward and took Miss Pat's hand. The emerald rings flashed on both as though in assertion of kinship. "Dear Aunt Pat! You must not take that boat affair too seriously. It may not have been--father--who did that." She faltered, dropping her voice as she mentioned her father. I was aware that Miss Pat put away her niece's hand with a sudden gesture--I did not know whether of impatience, or whether some new resolution had taken hold of her. She rose and moved nearer to me. "What have you to propose, Mr. Donovan?" she asked, and something in her tone, in the light of her dear eyes, told me that she meant to fight, that she knew more than she wished to say, and that she relied on my support; and realizing this my heart went out to her anew. A maid brought in a lamp and within the arc of its soft light I saw Helen's lovely head as she rested her arms on the table watching us. If there was to be a contest of wits or of arms on this peaceful lake shore under the high arches of summer, she and I were to be foes; and while we waited for the maid to withdraw I indulged in foolish speculations as to whether a man could love a girl and be her enemy at the same time. "I think we ought to go away--at once," the girl broke out suddenly. "The place was ill-chosen; Father Stoddard should have known better than to send us here!" "Father Stoddard did the best he could for us, Helen. It is unfair to blame him," said Miss Pat quietly. "And Mr. Donovan has been much more than kind in undertaking to care for us at all." "I have blundered badly enough!" I confessed penitently. "It might be better, Aunt Pat," began Helen slowly, "to yield. What can it matter! A quarrel over money--it is sordid--" Miss Pat stood up abruptly and said quietly, without lifting her voice, and turning from one to the other of us: "We have prided ourselves for a hundred years, we American Holbrooks, that we had good blood in us, and character and decency and morality; and now that the men of my house have thrown away their birthright, and made our name a plaything, I am going to see whether the general decadence has struck me, too; and with my brother Arthur, a fugitive because of his crimes, and my brother Henry ready to murder me in his greed, it is time for me to test whatever blood is left in my own poor old body, and I am going to begin now! I will not run away another step; I am not going to be blackguarded and hounded about this free country or driven across the sea; and I will not give Henry Holbrook more money to use in disgracing our name. I have got to die--I have got to die before he gets it,"--and she smiled at me so bravely that something clutched my throat suddenly--"and I have every intention, Mr. Donovan, of living a very long time!"