and every one will see you."
"I do' care who sees me, Thor. I'm ruined. Father says I'll have to go.
Got all the papers ready. O my God! what'll Bessie say?"
As they stumbled forward through the snow Thor tried to learn what had
happened.
"Got all my money and then kicked me out," was the only explanation.
"Not a cent in the world. What'll Bessie say? Oh, what'll Bessie say?
All her money. Hasn't got a hundred thousand dollars left out of tha'
grea' big estate. Make away with myself. Tha's what I'll do. O my God!
my God!"
On arriving in front of the house Thor saw lights in the drawing-room.
Lois was probably still there. It was no more than a half-hour since he
had left her, and other callers might have succeeded him. He tried to
steer his charge round the corner toward the side entrance in
Willoughby's Lane.
But Len grew querulous. "I do' want to go in the side door. Go in the
front door, hang it all! Father can't turn me out of my own house, the
infernal hound."
The door opened, and Lois stood in the oblong of light. "Oh, what is
it?" she cried, peering outward. "Is it you, Thor? What's the matter?"
"Treat me like a servant," Willoughby complained, as, with Thor
supporting him, he stumbled up the steps. "I do' want to go in the side
door. Front door good enough for me. No confounded kitchen-boy, if I
_am_ ruined. Look here, Lois," he rambled on, when he had got into the
hall and Thor was helping him to take off his overcoat--"look here,
Lois; we haven't got a cent in the world. Tha's wha' we haven't got--not
a cent in the world. Archie Masterman's got my money, and your money,
and your mother's money, and the whole damned money of all of us. Kicked
me out now. No good to him any more."
With some difficulty Thor got him to his room, where he undressed him
and put him to bed. On his return to the hall he found Lois seated in
one of the arm-chairs, her face pale.
"Oh, Thor, is this what you meant a few weeks ago?"
He did his best to explain the situation to her gently. "I don't know
just what's happened, but I'm afraid there's trouble ahead."
She nodded. "Yes; I've been expecting it, and now I suppose it's come."
"I shouldn't wonder if it had. But you must be brave, Lois, and not
think matters worse than they are."
"Oh, I sha'n't do that," she said, with a hint of haughtiness at his
solicitude. "Don't worry about me. I'm quite capable of bearing
whatever's to be borne. Please go on."
"If
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