That same day Captain Marrable had run down from London to Loring laden with terrible news. The money on which he had counted was all gone! "What do you mean?" said his uncle; "have the lawyers been deceiving you all through?"
"What is it to me?" said the ruined man. "It is all gone. They have satisfied me that nothing more can be done." Parson John whistled with a long-drawn note of wonder. "The people they were dealing with would be willing enough to give up the money, but it's all gone. It's spent, and there's no trace of it."
"Poor fellow!"
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Parson John and Walter Marrable. Click to [ENLARGE] |
![[ENLARGE]](#9180942409611901920_il10.jpg.id-1811749188399490646.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
"I've seen my father, uncle John."
"And what passed?"
"I told him that he was a scoundrel, and then I left him. I didn't strike him."
"I should hope not that, Walter."
"I kept my hands off him; but when a man has ruined you as he has me, it doesn't much matter who he is. Your father and any other man are much the same to you then. He was worn, and old, and pale, or I should have felled him to the ground."