Page:O'Higgins--From the life.djvu/138

 be happy here if what he says of me is true. Is that it?" She caught her breath. "Yes," she said.

"You're afraid it is true."

She stared at him, her lips trembling, white. "No."

"Don't be a coward," he said, rising to confront her.

She tried to swallow the catch in her throat and her eyes were full of pain.

"He told you the truth," he said, harshly. He took his papers from his pocket and tossed them on the desk. "Now we can go away together."

"Father!"

He turned on her. "My life here has been what the necessities of my position have made it. It hasn't been honest in the sense that you mean. And it can't be if I continue here. Very well. Let's be done with it, then. Let some one else struggle and scheme and be the scapegoat. I've sacrificed—a great deal. I'm not going to sacrifice my daughter's confidence."

She had stumbled across the room to him, weeping, with her hands out to him. He took her in his arms.

"My dear," he said, patting her on the shoulder, "give me a week to wind up my office here—to get the Governor to accept my resignation—to make my plans to go East. He's been wanting me to take charge of his campaign for the Presidential