extract from this pile of misery. I am not pleading for anything;
I am simply surrendering to the good impulses that are once more
coming into their own, after all these years of subjection....
I am not apologising to the Cables. I am doing this for your sake
and for the girl who has wronged no one and to whom I have acted
with a baseness which amazes me as I reflect upon it inside these
narrow walls.

"You will recall that I would have permitted you to marry her--I
mean, in the beginning. Perhaps it was spite which interposed later
on. At least, be charitable enough to call it that. Clegg has been
here to see me. He says you are bound to make Jane Cable your wife.
I knew you would. For a long time I have held out, unreasonably, I
admit, against having her as my daughter. I could not endure the
thought of giving you up altogether. Don't you comprehend my thought?
I cannot bring myself to look again into her eyes after what she
saw in this accursed prison.... She was born in wedlock.... The
story is not a long one. Elias Droom knows the names of her father
and mother, but I am confident that he does not know all of the
circumstances. For once, I was too shrewd for him. The story of
my dealings in connection with Jane Cable is a shameful one, and
I cannot hope for pardon, either from you or from her."

Here he related, as concisely as possible, the incidents attending
Mrs. Cable's first visit to his office and the subsequent adoption
of the babe.

"I knew that there was wealth and power behind the mystery. There
was a profitable scandal in the background. Unknown to Mrs. Cable,
I began investigations of my own. She had made little or no effort