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Ellen sat at the table and listened while her father paced to and fro and, by his restless action and passionate speech, worked himself into a frenzy He talked incessantly, as if her silence was condemnatory and as if eloquence alone could convince her of his honesty It seemed that Ellen saw and heard with keener faculties than ever before He had a terrible thirst for her respect Not so much for her love, she divined, but that she would not see how he had fallen!

She pitied him with all her heart She was all he had, as he was all the world to her And so, as she gave ear to his long, illogical rigument and defense, she slowly found that her pity and her love were nant moments, her father lapsed at last into a denunciation of the Isbels and what they had brought his were real, at least, in Ellen's presence She was the only link that bound hiain--the woone with hio on so," said Ellen, breaking in upon her father's rant "I will be true to y'u--as my ht is ain If God spares us through this feud ill go away and begin all over again, far off where no one ever heard of a Jorth If we're not spared we'll at least have had our whack at these damned Isbels"