that deed of crime. Hitherto my father has been able to escape his importunities, by absence or the address of his servants, but to-day he seemed to have a premonition that his children were in league against him, notwithstanding Carrie's ruse of the ball, and the knowledge may have worked upon him to that extent that he preferred death to a sight of the son that had ruined his life and made him the hermit you have seen." [76] The doctor fell into the trap laid for him with such diabolical art. "Perhaps; but if that is so, why is your brother not here? Only a few minutes could have elapsed between the time that Jonas saw him leaning over the table with the glass in his hand and the moment when you and your sister entered this room in face of your father's falling form. He must have been present, therefore, when your father came from his bedroom, if not when he drank the fatal glass; why, then, did he take such pains to escape, if[77] actuated by no keener emotion than horror at a father's suicide?" [77] "I do not know, I cannot say; but that he himself put the poison in the decanter I will not believe. A thief is not necessarily a parricide. Even if he were in great straits and needed the money my father's will undoubtedly leaves him, he would think twice before he ran the risk of making Carrie and myself his natural enemies. No, no, if my father has died from poison, it was through a mistake, or by the administration of his own hand, never by that of Joe Benson's." "Ah, and has anybody here present dared to charge him with such a deed!" With a start both gentlemen turned; an accusing spirit stood before them. "Edith!" broke from Hartley's lips. "This is no place for you! Go back! go back!" "My place is where the name of Joseph Benson is uttered," she proudly answered, "whether the words be for good or evil. I am his betrothed wife as you know, and again I ask, who has dared to utter an insinuation, however light, that he, the tender son and generous[78] brother, has had a criminal hand in his father's awful death?" [78] "No one! no one!" essayed Hartley, taking her hand with a weak attempt at soothing. "I was but saying——" But she turned from him with a gesture of
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