t to take it either; but, as the man represented to me, I had
others dependent on me, and for their sakes I was in duty bound to
take it, and to do the best I could for them with it."

"I think so too," murmured Katherine; but Mr. Selincourt continued
almost as if he had not heard her speak.

"I took the money and banked it with my other savings, feeling
rather proud of having such a nest-egg, and making up my mind that
when the summer came I would give the girls and the old man such a
holiday as they had never even dreamed of before. Then the blow
fell. I was called into the room of the chief one morning, and
asked if I were a gambler. Of course I said no, and that with a
very clear conscience, for I had never been addicted to betting nor
card playing in my life. Then I was asked to explain the lump sum
of fifty pounds which I had added to my banking account in the
previous week."

"But I thought that banking accounts were very private and
confidential things," said Katherine.

"So they are supposed to be; but the private affairs of a fellow in
my position would be sure to get closely overhauled, and a shrewd
bank manager might deem it only his duty to enquire how anyone with
my salary and responsibilities could afford to pay in big sums like
that," Mr. Selincourt replied. "Of course I could not explain how I
had come by the money, and to my amazement I was curtly dismissed,
and without a character."

"How horribly cruel!" panted Katherine, whose hands were pressed
against her breast, and whose face was deathly white. No one knew
how terribly she suffered then, as she stood there bearing, as it
were, the punishment for her father's guilty silence, while she
listened to the story of what his victim had had to endure.

"It did seem cruel, as you say, horribly cruel!" Mr. Selincourt
said, a grey hardness spreading over his kindly face, as if the
memory of the bitter past was more than he could bear. "The two
years that followed were crammed with poverty and privation; there
was almost constant sickness in the home, and I could get no work
except occasional jobs of manual labour, at which any drayman or
navvy could have beaten me easily, by reason of superior strength.
I left Bristol and went to Cardiff, hoping that I might lose my
want of a character in the crowd. But it was of no use. 'Give a
dog a bad name and hang him', is one of the truest proverbs we've
got. What is the matter, child?" he asked, as an