"You have learned something that I have not even told to my wife," he said hoarsely. "It is a shame that I shall never get over. When I threatened that boy with dismissal from his home if he insisted upon marrying the girl, he knew I had brought ten thousand dollars home for a special purpose. It was in the library safe which he knew how to open as well as I did. "He made his choice and left the house the next morning. When he was gone I found the money had gone with him. _That_ is what this woman you prate of brought my son to. Fool he was, but never knave before! If it had not been for her luxurious tastes and her wasteful extravagance, he would never have taken that money. He was crazy about her. And nothing but ready money would buy her for him. That is the sum and substance of the sordid affair. "There! I have never told a soul before of this fact, not even his mother. And I trust to your honour not to repeat it. But do not come to me for charity for that boy, or for the woman who has wasted his life. They are nothing to me--nor will they ever be! I long since washed my hands of them." CHAPTER X CAROLYN MAY IS PUZZLED The closing day of Carolyn May's school was so close at hand that she could not get to see the pale lady again. There was, too, something about the Bassetts, whom the little girl knew as "the Lairds," that made further association with them quite impossible as far as Carolyn was concerned. She could not at all understand it. She heard more of the discussion between her father and mother about the "Lairds" than her parents dreamed. And she was vastly puzzled thereby. Carolyn learned that Mr. Bassett, or Mr. Laird, or whatever his real name was, had done something very wrong indeed. Papa Cameron considered him unworthy of any help or consideration whatsoever. Nor could Mamma Cameron, after hearing the report of his interview with the Griffin, disagree with her husband on this point. Be that as it may, the little girl could not understand why the pale lady and the poor little baby should be made to suffer for Mr. Laird's wrongdoing. Mrs. Laird was in a very bad way and her baby was panting his life out in those close, hot rooms. Hannah Cameron had even suggested that evening after Carolyn's friend had suffered such a serious turn, that the little family be allowed to occupy the Cameron apartment while she and Carolyn were away in the country and at the seashore. But after Papa Cameron had interviewed the father of Joe Bassett, nothing more was said about that.