as if stating a self-evident argument.

"Where did you go to throw them in? To the Monroe Street bridge?"

"No, I didn't have time to go so far. I just went down through
Randolph Street to the bank and there was a boat there tied to a tree,
and I got in and pushed it out as far as the rope would go and dropped
the things in from the other end."

Sylvia caught her breath in terror at this recital. The Piquota river
ran swift and turbid and deep between high banks at that point.
"Weren't you afraid to venture out in a boat all by yourself?" asked
the man, looking at Judith's diminutive person.

"Yes, I was," said Judith unexpectedly.

Mr. Bristol said "Oh--" and stood in thought for a moment. Some one
knocked on the door, and he turned to open it. At the sight of the
tall figure standing there in his pepper-and-salt suit, Sylvia's
heart gave a great bound of incredulous rapture. The appearance of
a merciful mediator on the Day of Judgment could not have given her
keener or more poignant relief. She and Judith both ran headlong to
their father, catching his hands in theirs, clinging to his arms and
pressing their little bodies against his. The comfort Sylvia felt in
his mere physical presence was inexpressible. It is one of the pure
golden emotions of childhood, which no adult can ever recover, save
perhaps a mystic in a moment of ecstatic contemplation of the power
and loving-kindness of his God.

Professor Marshall put out his hand to the Principal, introducing