“What have you done?” he whispered. “Renalt, what have you done? We are in that man’s power to ruin us at a word!”
CHAPTER XXXI.
ONE MYSTERY EXPLAINED.
The explanation I had desired for the morrow I determined to bring about there and then. I went and stood above the old man and looked down upon him.
“Dad,” I said, softly, “once before, if you remember, I came to you heart-full of the question that I am now going to put to you again. I was a boy then, and likely you did right in refusing me your confidence. Now I am a man, and, dad, a man whose soul has been badly wounded in its sore struggle with life.”
He had drooped forward as I began, but at this he raised his head and looked me earnestly in the eyes.
“I know, Renalt. It was I broke the bottle then, as you have now. You have taken the lead into your own hands. What is it you’d ask?”
“Don’t you know, dad?”
“Yes, I know. Give me a little time and perhaps some day I’ll tell you.”
“Why not now, dad?”
He seemed to muse a little space, with his brows gone into furrows of calculation.