"I am glad she came," said Ralph. "She took the ten dollars I wrote you about?"
"Rather reluctantly. She is a strange woman," went on Mrs. Fairbanks thoughtfully; "I could not quite make her out. She acted quite flighty at times, but I believe she is honest, and very earnest in her gratitude and good intentions towards you."
"Why, yes," answered Ralph, with a suggestive smile. "She promised me a blessing. Have you any idea of what she was driving at?" he questioned, scanning his mother's face closely, for he observed that it bore a vague, disturbed expression.
"I think I have, Ralph. It appears that she knew--or at least knew about--your father, some years ago."
"She told me that."
"And she knows Gasper Farrington. She asked me a queer question, Ralph."
"What was it, mother?"
"If father did not once own twenty thousand dollars in railroad bonds, and if we had ever got them."
Ralph stopped eating for a moment.
"She said that, did she?" he murmured. "Mother, wouldn't it be strange if she knew something about those bonds?"