“Phil is right, Duncan,” he said softly. “The boy is your son, and you can make a man of him, if you will.”
Slowly the banker’s head drooped until it rested upon his arms, outstretched upon the flat desk before him. For a time he remained motionless, while those who watched and waited scarce dared to breathe.
Then Mr. Spaythe looked up, and the sternness had left his face.
“Eric,” he said, “you are forgiven.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE WATERMARK
Phœbe found the chickens had not been fed, and they were making a plaintive outcry for attention. She went to the stair and called to Elaine, but there was no reply.
Slowly ascending to the upper floor she pushed open the door and called again. Then something about her grandfather’s awkward position attracted her attention. She crept forward to peer into his face; then started back with a cry of dismay. Her grandfather was not there. A pillow and a bolster supported the dressing gown and head-shawl which had so cleverly deceived her.
Hurrying down she met Phil and Judge Ferguson coming up the walk. They told her to get Cousin Judith, and when the four were assembled in the quaint old parlor the girls heard the extraordinary story of Elaine’s arrest and Eric’s forgiveness.
Miss Halliday made a desperate fight for Jonathan Eliot’s money. Judge Ferguson was not the only lawyer in Riverdale. Among the others was a little, fat, bald-headed man named Abner Kellogg, whom the court allowed to defend the woman.