Walter Wheeler hardly heard him. He was facing the incredible fact, and
struggling with his own problem. After a time he got up, shook hands
with David and went home, the dog at his heels.
During the evening that followed he made his resolution, not to tell
her, never to let her suspect the truth. But he began to wonder if she
had heard something, for he found her eyes on him more than once, and
when Margaret had gone up to bed she came over and sat on the arm of his
chair. She said an odd thing then, and one that made it impossible to
lie to her later.
"I come to you, a good bit as I would go to God, if he were a person,"
she said. "I have got to know something, and you can tell me."
He put his arm around her and held her close.
"Go ahead, honey."
"Daddy, do you realize that I am a woman now?"
"I try to. But it seems about six months since I was feeding you hot
water for colic."
She sat still for a moment, stroking his hair and being very careful not
to spoil his neat parting.
"You have never told me all about Dick, daddy. You have always kept
something back. That's true, isn't it?"
"There were details," he said uncomfortably. "It wasn't necessary--"
"Here's what I want to know. If he has gone back to the time--you know,
wouldn't he go back to caring for the people he loved then?" Then,
suddenly, her childish appeal ceased, and she slid from the chair and
stood before him. "I must know, father. I can bear it. The thing you
have been keeping from me was another woman, wasn't it?"
"It was so long ago," he temporized. "Think of it, Elizabeth. A boy of
twenty-one or so."
"Then there was?"
"I believe so, at one time. But I know positively that he hadn't seen or
heard from her in ten years."
"What sort of woman?"
"I wouldn't think about it, honey. It's all so long ago."
"Did she live in Wyoming?"
"She was an actress," he said, hard driven by her persistence.
"Do you know her name?"
"Only her stage name, honey."
"But you know she was an actress!"
He sighed.
"All right, dear," he said. "I'll tell you all I know. She was an
actress, and she married another man. That's all there is to it. She's
not young now. She must be thirty now--if she's living," he added, as an
afterthought.