Page:Vance--The trey o hearts.djvu/148

124 "And you!" Rose turned on her passionately. "What about you? If I love Alan Law, at least I love him openly. I'm not ashamed to own it—and I don't pursue him, as you do, pretending I mean to sacrifice him to a wicked family feud, and then spare him, as you do, hoping so to work upon his sympathies. There," she cried to her father, "there stands the daughter who has betrayed your faith."

The retort on Judith's lips was checked by her father's gesture and a word that rang through the room like the tolling of a bell. "Silence!"

Abashed, she averted her face and hung her head.

"I think," Trine announced in a voice of ice, "I have learned now what I needed to know."

His fingers sought the row of buttons, and when a servant responded, he inquired.

"Mr. Marrophat has returned?"

"He is in the waiting-room, sir."

"Conduct Miss Judith Trine to him and tell him I hold him personally responsible for her safekeeping. He will understand."

"Very good, sir."

"No!" Trine silenced Judith's attempt to protest and exculpate herself, "not another word. Go!"

Sullenly the girl obeyed.

And for a long time thereafter the father, alone with Rose, essayed in vain to break down her mutinous silence.