It was a long time before he looked up, and during these minutes Philip, with his head bowed low to the other, told him of all that had happened in the little room at Wekusko.

But he did not say that it was he who had surprised the guard and released Thorpe and his wife.
At last MacGregor raised his head.
"Philip," he said, taking the young man's hand in both his own, "since she was a little girl and I a big, strapping playmate of nineteen, I have loved her.

She is the only girl--the only woman--I have ever loved.
You understand?
I am almost old enough to be her father.

She was never intended for me.

But things like this happen--sometimes, and when she came to plead with me the other day I almost yielded.