Nine, ten, eleven had been struck, and then into the sitting-room came Mr.
Hamilton, greatly astonished at finding his daughter there.
"Why, Margaret," said he, "why are you sitting up so late ?" "If it is late for me, it is late for you," answered Margaret, who, now that the trial had come, felt the awkwardness of the task she had undertaken.
"But I had business," answered Mr.Hamilton; and Margaret, looking him steadily in the face, asked: "Is not your business of a nature which equally concerns us all ?" A momentary flush passed over his features as he replied, "What do you mean?
I do not comprehend." Hurriedly, and in broken sentences, Margaret told him what she meant, and then tremblingly she waited for his answer.

Frowning angrily, he spoke to his daughter the first harsh words which had ever passed his lips toward either of his children.
"Go to your room, and don't presume to interfere with me again.

I trust I am competent to attend to my own matters!" Almost convulsively Margaret's arms closed round her father's neck, as she said, "Don't speak so to me, father.

You never did before--never would now, but for _her_.

Oh, father, promise me, by the memory of my angel mother, never to see her again.