APTER IX

Of course, I know that there are many strange things in life that seem
to contradict each other and themselves in a very puzzling manner, but
my disgrace has turned out in a way that nobody could have made me
believe, if they had told it to me in dictionary words of six
syllables. I am being befriended and honored by the whole of
Byrdsville, and I don't know what to make of it. My mind refuses to
explain it and my heart is just going on rejoicing over it, as I have
not been able to think up any reason why it shouldn't.

Everybody now knows about the steel process that their distinguished
citizen, Mr. Douglass Byrd, invented; and they all believe that Father
has had it stolen and has left Byrdsville for some place where Colonel
Stockell can't find him, but they are none of them mad at me about it.
Of course, a load of sympathy can be as heavy to bear as one of
disgrace; and when you have both the two to stagger under, you may
wobble some in your conduct, as I have done these last two days.
First, though my reason is convinced about Father, there is something
in me that just won't believe it, and that keeps making me hope, and
be passive in life, until he comes. I say nothing about it to anybody,
because the proof is too great against him, and I suppose it is really
more daughterly love than hope. Anyway, it is a precious feeling to
me.

But one thing that troubles me is the way one friend's sorrow can
throw its shadow over the lives of many others. It troubles me that
Tony and Roxanne and the Colonel and some of the others are distressed
about me, especially Tony. He came to see me the morning after Belle
had told me all about his scouting out the secret; and if it hadn't
been such an occasion I would have had to laugh at the collapsed way
he looked, like he would fall to pieces if you touched him even very
gently. His grin was so entirely gone that his mouth looked only the
size of an ordinary human being's, and his eyes were shut down so
dolefully that they were funnier than ever.

"Go on, Bubble, and shake me," he said, with a comical sadness that
was hard to bear with proper respect. "Play I'm a doormat if you want
to, but I cross my heart and body I didn't mean to hurt you by letting
my mouth overwork at the wrong time. The Dumpling is just a sponge
that sops up any old thing and lets any old body squeeze it out of
her. Please say you forgive me."

"Why, Tony," I said with difficult but becoming gr