"Idiot that I was, Leslie," he began breathlessly, "I was half way home before I came to my senses. Then in a flash I saw it all--no, you can't fool me this time. The whole trouble is your father's troubles. Come, confess!" "But I've already confessed," she said. And so she had, though not in the way she intended, for her eyes told the story. It was, therefore, with no uncertain tread, but rather with a sudden warmth and force that seemed to take possession of him, body and soul, that he continued: "Look here, little one, this is a matter between you and me and no one else. You must consider no one, but remember only that I represent to you the one man in all the world for you, as you stand for the only woman in the world for me: for I love you, Leslie, and I know that you love me." There had been times when Eliot Beekman had stood before and pleaded with reluctant juries and judges whose faces were dead set against him, but his task then had been nothing compared with the one now. And yet so well did he plead his case, that when he had finished it was as he had told her: she forgot her father's sentence, forgot everything, except that she loved him, and that he was the one man in all the world for her. "I believe you," she confessed to him in a whisper; "I believe you are right. Would to heaven that you had given me the chance to say this to you months ago." "You've loved me all the time?" he asked, his pulse beating fast. "Yes," she answered, "and I knew that you loved me." The next instant he had brought out the ring which she had refused to accept, a little while before, and holding out her hand impulsively Leslie let him put it on. There was a pause in which she looked first at the ring and then at the man before her, the meaning of it all slowly dawning upon her. And then in some sudden outburst of rapture she let herself be held in his arms as their lips met in one long kiss. In that moment her heart went out to him, and she knew that there could never be anyone else for her. After a time she gently drew herself away from him, and said: "My senses are coming back, Eliot, and this surrender is only on one condition, which is that there shall be no--no wedding--until, until father is cleared.... Of course, if you will not consent to this," and she toyed with the gem that sparkled on her finger, "then----" "Hold on there, hold on!" cried Beekman. "I'll consent to anything so long as you're mine...." "All over, is it, Eliot?" came in a big voice from somewhere behind them. The pair of lovers sprang apart like two persons caught in the act of concocting some conspiracy. The interloper was the girl's father. "I thought," went on Wilkinson, more gently now, "that I'd drop in before the news went over the wire. Leslie's been opening up her heart to me--letting me in on her troubles, and I agree with her, though it's your own affair, of course. I'd keep the engagement quiet, for the present."