"Come away, Laird!" begged the pale lady. "Hold on!" ejaculated the Griffin, harshly. "Am I a bear that I should bite the child, perhaps?" There was a momentary twinkle in Joe Bassett's eye. The success he had achieved in raising the money needed for his partnership with Barzilla had lent him a new confidence. "You're a Griffin, sir," he said. "That's worse than a bear. And once, you must remember, you came near running down the baby with your automobile. His mother received a shock at that time from which she has not even now wholly recovered." "So I did! I remember well enough. And the money I gave little Carolyn for her, _you_ returned!" "We could scarcely accept anything under the circumstances," Joe Bassett said, stiffly. "For the same reason I have refused your offer, through Inness, of that position in Arizona." "What offer?" demanded his father. "I made you no offer through Inness. That scalawag has been up to other mischief, has he? But was that man Cameron's visit to me on your behalf unknown to you, Joe?" "Cameron? You mean Carolyn's father?" demanded Joe Bassett in surprise. "I know nothing of it." "Ha! It might have been the child's father," exclaimed the Griffin. "I had not remembered _that_ was her last name." He turned to look at the little girl who was now dragging her mother forward. Mrs. Cameron had already seen that her suspicions were correct. She hesitated to approach the Bassetts at this moment; but Carolyn May was insistent. "Oh, please, sir!" she cried to the Griffin. "My mamma wants to thank you too for giving me such a splendid time." "This is the baby's grandfather?" Mrs. Cameron observed quietly. "I see!" "Let me introduce my father," said Joe Bassett. "I think," he added, with a warmer smile than usual, "that this lady and her husband are our very good friends. I know Carolyn May is." The Griffin was fast recovering his composure. He offered his hand again to Carolyn May and she clung to it with both of hers. "I fancy Carolyn is a friend to almost everybody," he remarked. "Your mother, Joe, has been much more cheerful of late because of this little girl--and the baby. You won't deny her the pleasure of seeing the boy frequently, will you?" and he looked directly at the pale lady when he made this humble request. It was a good deal to ask under the circumstances, and the Griffin seemed to realize it. Joe Bassett likewise looked down into his wife's face. Perhaps what they had suffered--all their trials and difficulties--could be traced directly to the harshness of this grey old man. But the very worst he had thought of his son and the girl beside him, _they would never know_! Little Carolyn suddenly felt the tenseness of the situation without understanding what it meant. She let go of the Griffin's hand with one of her own and reached for that of the pale lady, hanging timidly at her side.