sally madeira crept to the door of her father's study and listened. in the pallid light that was stealing up to her from piney's story her face was shadowy, with hurtful doubt, ashamed fear, and she steadied herself by the wall with hands that shook. she had stopped to put on a white gown that her father loved and her lustrous hair lay banded closely, a halo, about her shapely head. her face looked like a saint's.
"it is not so much to save bruce steering's inheritance for him, it's to save my father for myself." her lips moved stiffly as she whispered. "my old dream-father, my idol, i cannot live without him!" as she opened the door and passed in, she felt as though he had been away on a long journey and that this might be the hour of his return.
inside madeira sat at his desk, bruce grierson's letter spread out before him, the ghost of his torture. at night he heard it move, with a spectral rustling, under his pillow where he kept it. by day it writhed, a small, hot thing, over his heart. he had tried again and again to destroy it. everything else that had got in his way he had destroyed, but this he had not destroyed. he was trying to destroy it now, but he returned it to his pocket, unable to destroy it, ruled by it, when he raised his eyes and saw his daughter before him. she had not been without foresight even in her shame and sorrow. she had taken great pains to gown herself especially for him, especially to establish her influence over him. he held out his arms to her lovingly. in the sickness of soul and body now upon him he had turned more and more to her; she had to be with him almost constantly.
"you look so sweet," he said. "you are sweetest like this. i love you like this." despite the relief that came when with her, he talked nervously, his mouth jerking. his hands wandered to her head, and he held her face and peered at her. "sally, i wish i was a girl like you," he said, "girls look so peaceful. business tangles a man,--just to have peace, sally."
"it will come father, it will come. father, piney rode in from the hills just now, and he brought me news."
he could feel the tremor of her lithe body against his breast, and he moved quickly and uneasily, suspecting danger. his dreams had so long been terror-fraught that he was all nerves and suspicion. "news of what, sally?" the whitest, deadest voice, for so simple a question; on his face the most awful strain! she drew back on his knee and looked at him steadily, lovingly, and his eyes dropped and his hands began to drum on the chair-arm.
"father," she said, "piney has heard a long story. he was hid on the bluff-side, up at redbud, and he heard a letter read at the shack there, a dead man's letter."
"a dead--oh, god bless you--wait--sally, did that move? eh, what foolishness is this, a dead man's letter? what dead man? eh? what dead man?"
"bruce grierson, father."
"they lie! they lie! let them prove it!"
"ah, that was what i told piney, father! i knew, i knew that you could explain it. and you can now, and you will, father?" she was really beseeching him to rise up against her and the accusation against him, rise up in a great storm of indignation; she was praying that he would do that, expecting that he would, so firm were her convictions of his nobility. she drew back a little, to give him room, as it were; her hands fell upon his knee, and she leaned from him the better to see him, her face aglow with her fierce hope, her big belief, while she waited for that storm, that outraged denial, that tremendous vindication. and while she waited, erect, hopeful, eager, he shrank in upon himself; crumpled and wrinkled in upon himself until he looked weazened and small.
"let them prove it, let them," a whining mumble.
"they will not, father." she was leaning toward him again, her face quiet as the first frightened dawn of a grey morning; her voice was beaten and sad, but she went on dauntlessly. "the letter was to uncle bernique, father. and bruce steering read it. and though it told him that he was the owner of the tigmores, he and uncle bernique will not prove it." for a moment she paused, and then, with some new purpose on her face, she began again, "there was an oath to make all sure that they would not prove it. listen, father, these were the words of the oath: 'swear, i by my love for salome madeira, you by your love for piney's young mother, that never, so help us god, shall one or the other of us carry word of this thing to anyone, least of all to crittenton madeira and his daughter, salome!'"
"ah-h-h!" the words of the oath seemed to bring madeira his first brief respite in a long torture. the girl shivered at such relief, then went on resolutely:
"so now you see, father, everything is safe. i have come to let you know that everything is safe, that you need not be troubled, sleeping or waking, any more about this thing. you may keep the tigmores as long as you will," the light of her eyes beat upon him like a rain of pure gold, "you may be as rich as you like, father. mr. steering is to leave here; you need never be dispossessed during your lifetime. it is all safe and sure. uncle bernique will not tell, mr. steering will not tell, piney will not tell, i shall make no sign." the tragic strength of her endeavour to make him see that it was all with him; to leave it all to him; if so be that the better part were to be chosen, to make him choose it for himself; re-establish himself in so much as was possible for her loving regard, was in the hot clasp of the young hand that she laid upon him, the sweet earnestness of the face that leaned toward him. it was a strange fight, a battle of vast forces. he began to shake like an aspen leaf, but his eyes lifted to hers presently, to drink from them as from a fountain of life. his lips moved.
"just to have peace," he gasped hoarsely, "take that letter--take it from my pocket--send it to steering."
"father!" it was the cry of victory well won. "father! i am so glad!" over and over again. "all my life, father, i have expected the good thing to happen because of you, the right thing, i am so glad!" laughing, crying, she kissed him, took the letter and stole to the door. "piney shall be its bearer," she cried as she went, "piney shall take it; he will say the very best that there is to say!"
she ran out, and the door swung quickly behind her, so that she did not see that he put his hand over his empty pocket and held his heart with a great relief; then pitched forward suddenly, his head on the desk, a look of late-come, profound peace on his face.
