“But my parents left America long before that. If my grandfather was penniless how did he manage to live all those years? What supported him?”
“Your aunt—Miss Cahoon here—had money in her own right.”
“SHE had money and my mother had not. Yet both were Captain Cahoon's daughters. How did that happen?”
It seemed to me that it was Hephzy's time to play the target. I turned to her.
“Miss Cahoon will probably answer that herself,” I observed, maliciously.
Hephzibah appeared more embarrassed than I.
“I—I—Oh, what difference does all this make?” she faltered. “Hosy has told you the truth, Frances. Really and truly he has. Father was poor as poverty when he died and all his last years, too. All his money had gone.”
“Yes, so I have heard Mr. Knowles say. But how did it go?”
“In—in—well, it was invested in stocks and things and—and—”
“Do you mean that he speculated in shares?”