"Misfortunes?" queried Mostyn, puzzled. "I hadn't an idea that there was anything wrong. I should have thought that father was the very last man on earth to have got into any sort of trouble, and the bank--why, the bank must be as stable as any in London." "Oh! it's not the bank, and it's nothing for which father is to blame," Cicely went on hurriedly. "It's James and Charles who've turned out wrong. Oh, isn't it sad?" she went on, "for you know how absolutely he believed in them; you and I were the black sheep, Mostyn, but they were everything that they should be." "That's why they've gone wrong," put in Pierce, with a grunt of disapprobation. "A couple of beastly prigs. I always hated them, though they are your brothers, Sis. Well, there's one consolation, which is that your father must have found out his mistake by now, and recognised that he blundered when he turned you and Mostyn out of doors. It ought to have been the other two." "What have they done?" asked Mostyn. "Charles has run away with a ballet girl or some terribly impossible person," Cicely explained. "He induced father to make over a large sum of money to him, professing that he wanted it for that charitable work he pretended to be so interested in. I don't believe there was ever anything of the sort," she added indignantly; "it was only an excuse of Charles's to get a little more liberty while he was living at home." Mostyn said nothing, but smiled to himself. He knew that Cicely was right. "As soon as he had got his money," the girl went on, "he showed himself in his true colours. He laughed at father, and called him a pious old fraud, or something of the sort, which was wicked and cruel of him, for whatever he may be, our father is at least no hypocrite. Then Charles threw up his position at the bank, announced that he was going to marry the impossible person, and disappeared from home." "So much for Charles," said Mostyn. He had very little sympathy with Charles. "What about James?" "Ah! that's worse still, very much worse," Cicely continued, a little quiver at the sides of her lips proving that she was really moved. "James has been getting into money troubles, though how he can have managed it, I haven't the remotest idea. For, of course, he didn't gamble or bet or anything of that sort." "Stock Exchange," interjected Pierce, his upper lip curving. "It's a deadly sin to back a race-horse, but you may stand to lose or win your thousands upon the rise or fall of stock. That's one of those things which your father may be able to explain, but which knocks the ordinary man silly."