his hotel. He was out of town and remained out of town until the first day of Dudley's trial. I reached him at the Ritz at midnight, last night, when he arrived from the Chicago train, and I have stayed with him until now, pleading, persuading, and, I'm afraid doing some threatening and bulldozing. I wanted him to come to Carmelita and get the truth out of her. He was the only one who could do it, I felt—that is, the only one near her that Dudley hadn't forbidden to talk to her.
"At first he wouldn't listen to me—and you have no idea how very cold and haughty your father can be when he wants to, Carmelita. I talked with him at the Ritz; I took him to my club and talked until morning. And finally he yielded."
"Perhaps I was not so hard to persuade as I pretended to be," Don Caesar said quietly. Carmelita had captured him and placed him on the other side of her on the divan and was stroking his hand affectionately. "I was ashamed of myself the instant I wrote that last letter to you, Carmelita. I knew then that I should yield sometime. It was a terrible blow to me, you can understand, that curt cable from Paris announcing the destruction of all my plans for you. However, I have seen your husband, and Don Pablo has died, and
