Mr. Hamlin was silent.  “I cannot forgive Harriet,” he replied.  “But, of course, she must be brought home at once.”

“Nonsense!” Mr. Stuart continued.  “Summon your servants and have some one telephone to Harriet’s friends.  She has probably gone to one of them.  Tell the child that Sallie and I are here and wish to see her.  But where are my other ‘Automobile Girls,’ Mollie and Grace?”

“Upstairs, Father,” Ruth answered happily.  “Come and see them.  I want to telephone for Harriet.  I think she will come home for me.”

“Show your aunt and father to their rooms, Ruth,” Mr. Hamlin begged.  “I must wait here until a messenger arrives from the newspaper, which in some way has learned the story of our misfortune.  And even they do not know that the stolen papers were valueless.  I must explain matters to them.”

“A man of your influence can keep any mention of this affair out of the newspapers,” Mr. Stuart argued heartily.  “So the storm will have blown over by to-morrow.  And I believe you will be able to punish the two schemers who have tried to betray your daughter and disgrace my Barbara, without having Harriet’s name brought into this affair.”

For the first time, Mr. Hamlin lifted his head and nodded briefly.  “Yes, I can attend to them,” he declared in the quiet fashion that showed him to be a man of power.  “It is best, for the sake of the country, that the scandal be nipped in the bud.  I alone know what was in these state papers that Mrs. Wilson and Peter Dillon were hired to steal.  So I alone know to whom they would be valuable.  There would be an international difficulty if I should expose the real promoter of the theft.  Peter Dillon shall be dismissed from his Embassy.  Mrs. Wilson will find it wiser to leave Washington, and never to return here again.  I will spare the woman as much as I can for the sake of her son, Elmer, who is a fine fellow.  Ruth, dear, do telephone to Harriet’s friends.  Your father is right.  We must find my daughter at once.”

Miss Sallie, Mr. Stuart and Ruth started to leave the room.  Bab rose to follow them.

“Miss Thurston, don’t go for a minute,” Mr. Hamlin said.  “I wish to beg your pardon.  Will you forgive a most unhappy man?  Of course I see, now, that I had no right to suspect you without giving you a chance to defend yourself.  I can only say that I was deceived, as well as Harriet.  The whole plot is plain to me now.  Harriet was to be terrified into not betraying her own part in the theft, so she would never dare reveal the names of Mrs. Wilson or Peter Dillon.  I, with my mind poisoned against you, would have sought blindly to fasten the crime on you.  I regard my office as Assistant Secretary of State as a sacred trust.  If the papers entrusted to my keeping had been delivered into the hands of the enemies of my country, through my own daughter’s folly, I should never have lifted my head again, I cannot say—­I have no words to express—­what I owe to you and Ruth.  But how do you think a newspaper man could have unearthed this plot?  It seems incredible, when you consider how stealthily Peter Dillon and Mrs. Wilson have worked.  A man—­”