“Father gave him a check for five hundred dollars.”
“And the Captain's run away and won't pay. Those foreign fellows often do that. What an appropriate name Hornaby Hook is.”
“He has paid. He sent father the money and said he was going back to England at once.”
“So, ho! I understand now. My sister has been deserted, jilted, snubbed, and her Sawyer pride is hurt. If you'd written me that I'd be in Fernborough now, and so would Quincy and Alice. Florence, it was mean of you to send such a bloodcurdling telegram for so simple a thing.”
“But that isn't all,” cried Florence. “When the check for five hundred dollars that father gave him came back it had been raised to five thousand, and father has lost all that money. Oh, it is all over, and I shall never see him again.”
Another paroxysm of sobs, and a flood of tears. Maude's sisterly sympathy was, at last, aroused.
“Don't take on so, Flossie. Perhaps he didn't do it after all.”
“But father is so indignant. Think of his being paid back with his own money.”
Maude could not help laughing. “That was rather nervy, I'll admit. But that very fact makes me think he's innocent.”
She didn't really think so, but Florence was likely to go into hysterics and something must be done.