They talked together, the four of them, when Mr. Disbrow had grown calmer. Azalea would have left them, but Annie Laurie wanted her to stay. She held her hand and kept her close beside her.
“You understand everything, Azalea,” she whispered. “You don’t seem surprised at good times or at bad times, dear. You take things as they come. Stay with me, Azalea, I need you very much.”
“What will you do, miss?” Disbrow had asked. “Will you let the people know how you got your money back?”
Annie Laurie thought a moment.
“Don’t you think they have been suspecting you, Mr. Disbrow?” she asked.
The man nodded miserably.
“There wa’n’t a man in town would shake hands with me,” he confessed.
“And don’t you think,” went on the girl, “that they thought it fine of Sam to give up his school and to come back here and help out the aunts and myself?”
“They must have thought he was trying to give a square deal,” said Disbrow.
“Well, then,” Annie Laurie went on, holding tight to Azalea’s hand to gather courage, “I think I ought to tell them. It will let them know you were honest in your heart after all, and it will make them give Sam credit for what he’s done. I’m sure that’s the right way, Mr. Disbrow. When I was naughty I used to like to be punished—it made me feel fair and honest again. And you’ll feel better if the neighbors know. That will be your punishment. And what’s more, it will explain everything. I don’t want to have to tell a lie when I say how I got my money back. I never yet told a lie and I don’t want to begin now.”