It was not without a severe struggle with her conscience that Mrs. Marsh had summoned up courage to come to "Sea Rest." While in a sense she was privy to the conspiracy which had robbed her niece of her liberty, she had known only vaguely what Jimmy and Cooley were doing. They were fighting for the control of the Marsh millions, that was all she cared to know. If her niece, who had come to America uninvited, got the worst of it, that was her affair. It was Tod who had awakened her to the full enormity of the crime which her husband and the lawyer had committed, and after that her conscience knew no peace. Mrs. Marsh was not a bad woman at heart. She was vain and luxury-loving, she had been weak and foolish, and she had allowed herself to be governed, to a great extent, by Jimmy's loose code of morals. But she was not utterly depraved. Ever since the day she married Jimmy, she had known that her husband was unscrupulous, but that he would go as far as this she had never dreamed. While she might have overlooked his less important peccadilloes, she was determined not to follow him further in his course of crime. They were in a desperate predicament for money, but that made no difference. She would rather sell everything she had in the world and be reduced to beggary rather than remain an accomplice in such a diabolical action as subjecting a perfectly sane young girl to the horrors of a lunatic asylum. Already she had had a stormy scene with Jimmy. She told him plainly that she had done with him, that she despised him and would leave him forever. And now, at Tod's earnest entreaties, she had come herself to "Sea Rest" to find out what she could do to right a great wrong and help the poor motherless girl who was the victim of two scoundrels. She was thus absorbed in her reflections when a loud chuckle close by her ear caused her to look up with a start. It was Tod who had returned after seeing Mr. Ricaby off. With a chortle of satisfaction, he said: "He's gone! If they don't hit a tree and break their necks he ought to be back in half an hour." Surprised to find his mother still sitting there, he demanded: "Haven't you seen Paula yet?" "No," she answered. "I was waiting until the gentleman at the desk had time to attend to me." But Tod was not of the kind who waits for the convenience of others. Striding boldly to the desk, he said, in a tone of authority: "Mr. Spencer, will you please send for Miss Marsh? My mother wishes to see her at once." The superintendent, who was busy going over some papers with Dr. McMutrie, looked up at this interruption and frowned. "Impossible," he snapped. "The patient can't be seen to-day." "But this lady is Miss Marsh's aunt," persisted Tod, not to be put off so easily. The superintendent suddenly became more polite. "Are you Mrs. James Marsh?" he asked, looking more closely at the visitor. "Yes," she answered. Taking up the telephone to communicate with the ward, he said: