“I thought you would feel that way,” said Mrs. Haley, sadly. “God grant that you may be right, but as he has asked Dollie to marry him, I felt that she ought to know it.”
“Certainly,” said Marion, still in her calm, clear voice. “And I think she will cling to him even more closely in his trouble, for I am sure Ralph would never do a dishonest deed. There must be a mistake. Oh, I am almost sure of it.”
“I have tried hard to think so, for he is my sister’s child,” said Mrs. Haley, sadly. “Oh, the suspicion is dreadful. I wish I could overcome it.”
As soon as their visitor was gone, poor little Dollie burst out crying.
“Oh, Marion, he took it,” she whispered, faintly. “He stole it for us when I was sick and we had no money.”
“It is dreadful,” said Marion, in a broken voice. “Oh, why couldn’t he see that it was better for us to starve. Poor Ralph, I forgive him, but, oh, I wish he hadn’t done it. And to think we have promised to say nothing about it.”
Dollie grew so sick after this that Marion was terribly alarmed. A chill came on, followed by a raging fever.
Marion looked in her purse. There was just three dollars left. Without the slightest hesitation she ran for a doctor.
That night when Dollie was more quiet she went out for a short walk. She felt that she must be alone where she could think over the situation.
That hundred dollars must be earned and returned to Ralph. She clenched her hands together as she came to this decision. As she turned a corner she saw a group of people just before her all standing around a man who appeared to be a street preacher.