"Five years ago, he started to put me out of business by buying up the small mills and pooling them against me. To protect myself, I bought negotiable paper, covering mills in this locality wherever I could get it. Where I could get control of the mills, I did it. They were my competitors and would have taken my business or combined against me gladly," Obadiah's eyes rested anxiously upon the face of his daughter as he concluded, "I was fighting Dalton, a more powerful man than myself, not widows and orphans." Virginia's face had softened but there was yet a question in her manner. "I am an old man," Obadiah continued. "I find that my ideas are changing and my view of life shifting. I have believed that the accumulation of wealth was everything. I know now that the happy man must accumulate other things or he will find himself deserted and miserable with his gold. In my life I have been guilty of many wrongs. I would right those wrongs if I could. Will you forgive me, Mrs. Curtis, for unknowingly harming you and yours?" "No," she cried. "You explain your reasons for loosening the forces which injured me; but there is no regret in your heart. You'd do the same thing tomorrow." He turned to his daughter. "At least, you understand me, Virginia?" "I know what you have done, Daddy; but Mrs. Curtis has suffered, and she alone can wipe the slate clean." The girl's face had saddened again, and as she spoke it was as if she had forgotten that there were others in the room. "Mother wouldn't have wanted you to make all of this unhappiness. You brought sorrow and tears where she would have wanted you to carry laughter and joy. I can't judge you fairly. How I have longed for you during the past weeks and how I have wanted to go home. Unless Mrs. Curtis can forgive you, Daddy, you haven't found mother's way to settle this matter." She gave a queer strained little cry. "I can never go home with you, Daddy, until you learn to follow her way," she sobbed, and dropped into a chair. At the girl's words, Mrs. Curtis had raised her eyes, and as she listened her face softened. As Virginia sank into the chair, the woman was beside her, petting and soothing her. It seemed as if his daughter's words had taken the very heart out of Obadiah. It was a haggard old man bowed low with trouble who watched her, the greatness of his longing written plain upon his lined countenance.