For her part, she was very glad he had not returned from Europe with the girls, though, of course, the presence of Don Caesar and his sister during their European sojourn was a corrective.

As Paul's face grew darker during this languid criticism, Yerba, who had been watching it with a new and absorbing sympathy, seized the first moment when they left the table to interrogate him with heartbreaking eyes.
"You don't think, Paul, that the colonel is really poor ?" "God only knows," said Paul.

"I tremble to think how that scoundrel may have bled him." "And all for me! Paul, dear, you know you were saying in the woods that you would never, never touch my money.

What"-- exultingly--"if we gave it to him ?" What answer Paul made did not transpire, for it seemed to have been indicated by an interval of profound silence.
But the next morning, as he and Mr.Woods were closeted in the library, Yerba broke in upon them with a pathetic face and a telegram in her hand.

"Oh, Paul--Mr.Hathaway--IT'S TRUE!" Paul seized the telegram quickly: it had no signature, only the line: "Colonel Pendleton is dangerously ill at St.John's Hospital." "I must go at once," said Paul, rising.
"Oh, Paul"-- imploringly---"let me go with you! I should never forgive myself if--AND IT'S ADDRESSED TO ME, and what would he think if I didn't come ?" Paul hesitated.