that I can't do as she wishes, but you understand that I can't. Tell
her, please, that I did honestly try to think I could, but it wasn't of
any use."

"Oh, come now, Eleanor, if that is it, of course we wanted Margaret
Elizabeth up at the Park; but the young people of this generation like
to manage their own affairs, as we did before them." Mr. Pennington
looked quizzically at his niece. "She's been getting up a bit of
melodrama for our benefit, that's all. If you will pardon the
suggestion, my dear, I think possibly it is you who do not understand."

Margaret Elizabeth, rising from her lowly position, threw him a kiss
over her aunt's head.

"How can I be expected to, with everything shrouded in mystery?" cried
Mrs. Pennington. "Why have I never heard of this person before? Why was
I left to be told dreadful things by a reporter?"

"A reporter!" cried Margaret Elizabeth, in her turn aghast.

"Nonsense! If you heard anything dreadful you know Margaret Elizabeth
well enough to know it was not true. But how in the world could a
reporter have got hold of it?"

"You speak so confidently, Gerrard, tell me, what do you know about this
man?" Mrs. Pennington looked from her niece to her husband. "Margaret
Elizabeth seems to have completely won you to her side," she added.

"It is really a very strange story, Eleanor, and to begin at the end of
it, we have quite sufficient evidence, in my opinion, to prove that he