with staring eyes until I turned the corner and was
out of sight. But I had little time to wonder at this astonishing
behavior, for in a moment I was in my grandfather's office.

He was seated at a great table, and had apparently been going over some
accounts, for the board in front of him was littered with books and
papers. I saw, even beneath the disguise of his red face and white hair,
his strong resemblance to my father, and my heart went out to him on the
instant. For I had loved my father, despite the wild behavior which
marred his later clays. Indeed, I always think of him during that time as
suffering with a grievous malady, of which he could not rid himself, and
which ate his heart out all the faster because he saw how great was the
anguish it caused the woman he loved. That it was some such disease I am
quite certain, so different was his naturally strong and sunny
disposition.

My grandfather gazed at me some moments without speaking, as I stood
there, longing to throw myself into his arms, and all the misery of the
years that followed might never have been, had I buried my pride and
followed the dictates of my heart. But I waited for him to speak, and the
moment passed.

"So this is Tom's boy," he said at last. "My God, how like he is!"

He fell silent for a moment,--silenced, no doubt, by bitter memories.

"You wonder, perhaps," he said in a sterner tone, "why I have sent for
you; but I could do no less. The letter from your pastor which announced
the deaths of your father and your mother brought me the tidings also
that your mother's fortune had been diced away down to the last penny,
and that even the negroes must be sold to satisfy the claims against it.
However undutiful your father may have been, I could not permit his son
to become a charge upon the poor funds."

I felt my cheeks flushing, but I judged it best to choke back the words
which trembled on my lips.

"I can read your thought," said my grandfather quickly. "You are
thinking that the heir of Riverview could hardly be called a pauper. Do
not forget that your father forfeited his claim to the estate by his
ungentlemanly conduct."

"I shall not forget it," I burst out. "My father made sure that I should
never forget it. I shall never claim the estate. And my father's conduct
was never ungentlemanly."

"As you will," said my grandfather scornfully. "I am not apt at
mincing words. I told him one thing many years ago which I should have