"He thinks he is doing it for the best.

Wicker, I hope it is--it is not Mr.Barnes," she added, voicing a thought which had been struggling in her mind for a long time.
"Why not, dearest ?" "It would mean one of two things.

Either he does not want to recognise me as his child--or cannot, which is even worse.

Wicker, I don't want to know the truth.

I am afraid--I am afraid." She was trembling like a leaf and there was positive distress in her eyes, eyes half covered by lids tense with alarm.
"Don't feel that way about it, dear," cried he, recovering from his astonishment and instantly grasping the situation as it must have appeared to her.