His face was clouded. "I can't blame Humphrey," the Squire said, with his eyes on him.
Dick made no reply.
"He came on purpose to ask you," said Virginia. "He didn't try to keep it from you."
"He did keep it from me," said Dick. "I ought to have known."
"What should you have done?" asked the Squire.
Dick did not answer. Mrs. Clinton broke in. "Let us leave that alone," she said. "Humphrey had poor Susan to consider. We have no right to blame him for what he did."
"I say nothing about that, for the present," said Dick. "I must think it over. If I had been there he would not have got the money."
"He wouldn't have told you why he wanted it," Virginia said. "I think you would have paid it—to Gotch—as I did."
"You see how difficult it all is, Dick," said Mrs. Clinton. "At every moment there have been difficulties. Do not think harshly of poor Humphrey."
"He is out of it," said Dick, "at the other side of the world. See what comes of his actions. We couldn't be touched if it were not for that—in any way that will harm us. Susan is dead. Nobody else had done anything they could have been accused of, or made sorry for, up till that time."