"I know all that. But who is he?"

"I refuse to tell you."

"Will you refuse to tell your daughter?" sneered his sister.

Cass looked up quickly, and something of dismay came over his face. "Ruth--what has Ruth to do with him?"

"This much. They are in love with one another; they are secretly engaged. Is that a sufficient excuse for my seeing you to-night?"

"I don't believe it. Webster would not----"

"Oh, as to that, I don't know what hold you have over him."

"Hold!" repeated Mr. Cass, rising and beginning to pace the room in an agitated manner. "What do you mean? I have no hold."

"In that case you should not have thrown him into the society of an impressionable fool like Ruth. I got the truth out of her to-night, though I had long suspected it. She loves him; and what's more she will defy you and marry him."

"That she shall never do:" he said vehemently.

"I tell you she will, and without your consent, unless you can talk her out of this infatuation and marry her to Heron."

"There will be no need to talk her out of it." Mr. Cass said, coldly. "Webster will not marry her."

"Do you mean that he will refuse?"

"I mean that he will refuse," he replied with decision.

"And under your influence?"

"Under my influence. Yes."

"Ah!" Aunt Inez drew a long breath, for her suspicions as to the identity of Webster were now confirmed. "Then you intend to use the knowledge of his father's murder to influence this so-called Webster?"

"What do you mean?" Mr. Cass asked angrily.

"Exactly what I say," retorted his sister. "I am not a fool, if you are Sebastian, Webster is the son of Jenner, who was murdered at the Turnpike House. I remember how his mother used to bring him here to beg for food. He is just the same nervous creature now as he was then. I 

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