father's death. I cannot think it has, and yet""
The subtle inflection of his voice spoke volumes. This great actor had evidently been driven to bay.
"O Hartley!" came in a terrified cry from his sister; "what is this? You cannot think, they cannot think, Joe could do any thing so dreadful as that?" while over the face of Edith passed a look of despair, as she saw the countenance of the doctor slowly fill with the gloom of suspicion, and even the faithful Uncle Joe turn away as if he too had been touched by the blight of a secret doubt.
"Ah, but I wish Joe were here himself!" she cried with startling emphasis. "He should speak, even if it brought ruin amongst us."
But the doctor was a man not to be moved by so simple a thing as a woman's unreasoning emotion.
"Yes, the Yellow Domino would be very welcome just now," he allowed, with grim decision.
"That he is not here is the most damning fact of all," Hartley slowly observed. "He fled when he saw our father fall."
