elihood is that many details were picked up by degrees and
dovetailed into the memory of that first narrative as integral parts
of it.

"Your grandmother was not born to be a servant," his mother began. "She
was a rich man's daughter, and there was not a thing her father didn't
want to do for her. Yet he left her in the hands of strangers who
cheated her of her rights and treated her as if she had been a
beggar...."

"Why did they do it," the boy asked, quite unable to grasp the idea of
such a thing.

"Because they could make a little more money that way, and because they
cared for nothing but money. Promise me, Keith, that whatever happens to
you, and whatever the temptation be, you will never put money above
everything else."

Keith shook his head earnestly, meaning it to be sign of assent. He was
a highly impressible child, and when his mother spoke to him like that,
he used literally to choke with a feeling that he could never, never do
anything but what she asked, but when another rush of feeling swept over
him, the old promises were also likely to be swept out of his mind.

"Those people did the worst thing any one can do to anybody else. They
twisted Granny's life so that it could never be set right again. And so
she became what you see her now...."

"You mean she just couldn't help herself," Keith put in.

"Yes, that's what I mean," she agreed. Then she stopped as if struck by
another thought, and said very slowly:

"Although, if she had been really strong...."

Once more she stopped and returned abruptly to her story:

"Your great-grandfather made and sold hats, and he earned a lot of
money, and they made him a City Councillor...."

"Where," Keith broke in again.

"In Skara," his mother explained, "which is a city that lies a long way
from here, and when you begin to learn geography, you will know where it
is.... Everybody liked your great-grandfather...."

"What was his name," Keith couldn't help asking.

"Lack," she said, "and now you mustn't interrupt me any more if you want
me to go on."

"Please," Keith pleaded. "I won't!"

"The reason they liked him," she resumed, "was that he was so
good-hearted that he couldn't say no to anybody or anything. He didn't
seem to care for money at all, and he used to say: 'What's money between
friends?' Everybody wanted to be friends with him in those days, and
everybody borrowed from him, until he didn't have enough left for his
business, and then they