"I ask pardon for my unwarranted intrusion." At the door he paused and glanced back toward that motionless figure yet standing with one hand grasping the back of the chair.
"Before I go, permit me to ask a single question," he said, frankly.
"I was a friend of old Ben Gillis, and he was a friend to my father before me.

Have you any reason to suspect that he was not Naida Gillis's father ?" Hampton took one hasty step forward.

"What do you mean ?" he exclaimed, fiercely, his eyes two coals of fire.
Brant felt that the other's display of irritation gave him an unexpected advantage.
"Nothing that need awaken anger, I am sure.

Something caused me to harbor the suspicion, and I naturally supposed you would know about it.
Indeed, I wondered if some such knowledge might not account for your very deep interest in keeping her so entirely to yourself." Hampton's fingers twitched in a nervousness altogether unusual to the man, yet when he spoke his voice was like steel.

"Your suspicions are highly interesting, and your cowardly insinuations base.