"Judge Ostrander, I did not plan their meeting, nor did I at first
encourage his addresses. Not till I saw the extent of their mutual
attachment, did I yield to the event and accept the consequences.
But I was wrong, wholly wrong to allow him to visit her a second
time; but now that the mischief is done--"

Judge Ostrander was not listening.

"I have a question to put you," said he, when he realised that she
had ceased speaking. "Oliver was never a fool. When he was told
who your daughter was, what did he say of the coincidence which
made him the lover of the woman against whose father, his father
had uttered a sentence of death? Didn't he marvel and call it
extraordinary--the work of the devil?"

"Possibly; but if he did, it was not in any conversation he had
with me."

"Detroit is a large city and must possess hundreds of sweet young
girls within its borders. Could he contemplate without wonder the
fact that he had been led to the door of the one above all others
between whom and himself Fate had set such an insurmountable
barrier? He must have been struck deeply by the coincidence; he
must have been, madam."

Astonished at his manner, at the emphasis he placed upon this
point which seemed to her so much less serious than many others,
she regarded him doubtfully before saying: