most embarrassing situation, Katherine.”
She caught her breath.
“You mean?”
“I mean that I should like to help you, but – but – ”
“Yes? Yes?”
“But I cannot.”
“Cannot! You mean – you refuse his case?”
“It pains me, but I must.”
She grew as white as death.
“Oh!” she breathed. “Oh!” She gazed at him, lips wide, in utter dismay.
Suddenly she seized his arm. “But you have not yet thought it over – you have not considered,” she cried rapidly. “I cannot take no for your answer. I beg you, I implore you, to take the case.”
He seemed to be struggling between two desires. A slender, well-knit hand stretched out and clutched a ruler; his brow was moist; but he kept silent.
“Mr. Blake, I beg you, I implore you, to reconsider,” she feverishly pursued. “Do you not see what it will mean to my father? If you take the case, he is as good as cleared!”
His voice came forth low and husky. “It is because it is beyond my power to clear him that I refuse.”
“Beyond your power?”
“Listen, Katherine,” he answered. “I am glad you believe your father innocent. The faith you have is the faith a daughter ought to have. I do not want to hurt you, but I must tell you the truth – I do not share your faith.”
“You refuse, then, because you think him guilty?”
He inclined his head. “The evidence is conclusive. It is beyond my power, beyond the power of any lawyer, to clear him.”
This sudden failure of the aid she had so confidently counted as already hers, was a blow that for the moment completely stunned her. She sank back in her chair and her head dropped down into her hands.
Blake wiped his face with his handkerchief. After a moment, he went on in an agitated, persuasive voice:
“I do not want you to think, because I refuse, that I am any less your friend. If I took the case, and did my best, your father would be convicted just the same. I am going to open my heart to you, Katherine. I should like very much to be chosen for that senatorship. Naturally, I do not wish to do any useless thing that will impair my chances. Now for me, an aspirant for public favour, to champion against the aroused public the case of a man who has – forgive me the word – who has betrayed that public, and in the end to lose that case, as I most certainly should – it would be nothing less than political suicide. Your father would gain nothing. I would lose – perhaps everything. Don’t you see?”
“I follow your reasons,” she said brokenly into her hands, “I do not blame you – I accept your answer – but I still believe my father innocent.”
“And for that faith, as I told you, I admire and honour you.”
She slowly rose. He likewise stood up.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I do not know,” she answered dully. “I was so confident of your aid, that I had thought of no alternative.”
“Your father has tried other lawyers?”
“Yes. They have all refused. You can guess their reason.”
He was silent for an instant.
“Why not take the case yourself?”
“I take the case!” cried Katherine, amazed.
“Yes. You are a lawyer.”
“But I have never handled a case in court! I am not even admitted to the bar of the state. And, besides, a woman lawyer in Westville – No, it’s quite out of the question.”
“I was only suggesting it, you know,” he said apologetically.
“Oh, I realized you did not mean it seriously.”
Her face grew ashen as her failure came to her afresh. She gazed at him with a final desperation.
“Then your answer – it is final?”
“I am sorry, but it is final,” said he.
Her head dropped.
“Thank you,” she said dully. “Good-by.” And she started away.
“Wait, Katherine.”
She paused, and he came to her side. His features were gray-hued and were twitching strangely; for an instant she had the wild impression that his old love for her still lived.
“I am sorry that – that the first time you asked aid of me – I should fail you. But but – ”
“I understand.”
“One word more.” But he let several moments pass before he spoke it, and he wet his lips continually. “Remember, I am still your friend. Though I cannot take the case, I shall be glad, in a private way, to advise you upon any matters you may care to lay before me.”
“You are very good.”
“Then you accept?”
“How can I refuse? Thank you.”
He accompanied her down the stairway and to the door. Heavy-hearted, she returned home. This was sad news to bring her father, whom but half an hour before she had so confidently cheered; and she knew not in what fresh direction to turn for aid.
She went straight up to her father’s room. With him she found a stranger, who had a vague, far-distant familiarity.
The two men rose.
“This is my daughter,” said Doctor West.
The stranger bowed slightly.
“I have heard of Miss West,” he said, and in his manner Katherine’s quick instinct read strong preconceived disapprobation.
“And, Katherine,” continued her father, “this is Mr. Bruce.”
She stopped short.
“Mr. Bruce of the Express?”
“Of the Express,” Bruce calmly repeated.
Her dejected figure grew suddenly tense, and her cheeks glowed with hot colour. She moved up before the editor and gazed with flashing eyes into his square-jawed face.
“So you are the man who wrote those brutal things about father?”
He bristled at her hostile tone and manner, and there was a quick snapping behind the heavy glasses.
“I am the man who wrote those true things about your father,” he said with cold emphasis.
“And after that you dare come into this house!”
“Pardon me, Miss West, but a newspaper man dares go wherever his business takes him.”
She was trembling all over.
“Then let me inform you that you have no business here. Neither my father nor myself has anything whatever to say to yellow journalists!”
“Katherine! Katherine!” interjected her father.
Bruce bowed, his face a dull red.
“I shall leave, Miss West, just as soon as Doctor West answers my last question. I called to see if he wished to make any statement, and I was asking him about his lawyer. He told me he had as yet secured none, but that you were applying to Mr. Blake.”
Doctor West stepped toward her eagerly.
“Yes, Katherine, what did he say? Will he take the case?”
She turned from Bruce, and as she looked into the white, worn face of her father, the fire of her anger went out.
“He said – he said – ”
“Yes – yes?”
She put her