"There was. Don't contradict me. If your conduct was not underhand, why did you not come and say good-night to me in my study as usual?" "Because I could not," said Dorinda coldly, and looking straight at her angry parent. "What Rupert told me about you disgusted me too much." "Rupert!" Mallien rose and pushed back his chair noisily. "You went to see that--that--that scoundrel?" Dorinda rose in her turn. "He is not a scoundrel." "He is, I tell you, and I forbid you to see him again." "As I am engaged to my cousin, I shall see him when and where I please," said the girl deliberately. "Don't try me too far, father, or you will be sorry for it. I am not in the best of tempers this morning." "You--you--minx!" gasped the angry man, choking with rage. "How dare you address me in that way?" "And how dare you accuse Rupert of murdering Mr. Leigh," she retorted boldly. Mallien's wrath suddenly died away, and he dropped back into his chair with an uneasy look. "Who says that I accuse----" "Rupert himself told me. I saw him last night, to hear what he had to say about this missing will, and he told me what you did not tell me." "He's a mean hound to put my daughter against me!" shouted Mallien. "Please"--Dorinda flung up her hand--"I am not deaf. Rupert did not wish to tell me. I made him speak out, as I saw that he was hiding something. If you were as honorable and scrupulous as Rupert, father, you would not need to get into these rages with me, as I don't deserve them. And it's no use your behaving in this way. I can hold my own, as you well know, and I intend to do so. We may as well understand one another." "I am your father; you owe me respect." "How can I give you what you don't deserve? You _are_ my father, and God help me that I should have such a one." "If you talk to me in this way," snarled Mallien, blustering, "I shall turn you out of doors neck and crop. What will you do then?" "Marry Rupert," rejoined the girl promptly. "A ruined man," sneered the other. "He is not ruined yet; he never may be ruined. That will has yet to be found; it has yet to be proved legal, and you may be sure that Rupert will take all the advantage he can, to keep what he has." "I see. You are fighting against your father." "I fight on the side of right. If the property is yours, Rupert is willing to hand it over; if it is his, he has every right to keep it. But you have no right," cried Dorinda, striking the table passionately, "to accuse an innocent man of committing such a cowardly crime." "You are talking nonsense," said Mallien, doggedly and folded his arms. "He is guilty." "He is not. No one knows that better than you." Mallien cringed at that last sentence, and his dark face grew strangely pale as he avoided his daughter's steady blue eyes. "I don't know why you should say that," he muttered.