I went to the telephone and called the garage. Silas answered. I managed, somehow, to congratulate him on the lottery drawing before I asked him to find Dr. Denton, please, and ask him to come up to the house, if he were not too busy. I wished to speak to him.
Ten full, wretched minutes I endured before he came.
"Is anything the matter?" he asked, bursting in precipitately.
Mutely, I gave him the letter.
He read it, and crumpled the sheets in his hand.
Instantly on the defensive,
"Well?" he said.
"Was there any reason to lie to me?" I counter-questioned, quietly. "You must have known that, sooner or later, I would know ... if not now, then when I saw Father again."
I think my eyes warned him that this was a time for very plain speaking.
"I had hoped," he answered, after a little pause, "to persuade your Father to bear me out in what I believed a harmless enough conspiracy.—After all," he added, breaking my persistent silence, "it would be difficult to explain to your Father that you refused to let me support you."