"Send her over here for a time—or bring her yourself. We have heaps of room here. Miss Penny is coming to stop with us next week. Your mother was always fond of Margaret, I believe."
"She was—very fond of her.... That's a good thought of yours, Graeme. Are you sure Margaret—?"
"Of course she would. She and Miss Penny will just take care of her, and no word of the troubles will reach her. That's the thing to do, and maybe you'll find things not as bad as you expect when you get back."
But, from the look of him, Charles Svendt had small hope of matters being anything but what he feared.
When the girls came down they made an apology of a meal, for, in spite of their hunger, the stricken look of their friend took their appetites away.
The thought that there might still lurk in their minds a suspicion that he had had some knowledge of his father's position, when he came across to stop their marriage, still troubled him.
"I do hope you will all believe me when I say that I knew absolutely nothing of it all," he said, when they had finished an almost silent meal. "When I said I had doubted him at times, I simply meant that his everlasting and—and—well, very assertive philanthropies palled upon me. It was a little difficult at times to believe in the genuineness of it all, for we did not see very much of it at home, as you know,"—he looked at Margaret, who nodded. "In business matters he could be as hard as nails, and it was not easy to fit it all together."
"Not one of us believes anything of the kind of you, old man. Just get that right out of your head, once for all. We're only sorry for your sake that the trouble has come, and I'm sure we all hope it will turn out not so bad as you fear," said Graeme heartily.
"What about your mother, Charles?" said Margaret. "I'm afraid she will feel this dreadfully. Hennie and I were talking about it upstairs, and we were wondering if you could get her to come and stop with us for a time—"
"You see!" said Graeme, with a smile at Pixley. And to Margaret—"I suggested exactly the same thing while you were up doing your hair."