"I don't know whether to tell you or not," he said.
"Tell me, Dad," she begged softly. "You and I have lots of secrets and I never tell one. Mother doesn't dream that Grandmother is going to give her a lovely surprise by coming up soon."
"Well, girlie," said Mr. Devering as he walked on slowly, "I will confide in you. When my young sister went as a girl to live with multi-millionaire Great-Aunt Beverly Ronald, our family virtually gave her up. The old lady took her to Europe, had her beautiful voice trained and made a wonderful singer of her. During one of their brief visits to Canada your aunt met my American chum, Douglas Duff, who was visiting me. They fell in love with each other and were married, despite great-aunt's protests. However, she consented to go and live with them in Boston, where she made their lives miserable with her complaints. She said the dull life of a hard-working attorney was killing her bright young niece and there was some truth in the statement. Douglas wished his wife to stay quietly at home and he never allowed her to sing in public. Finally her health gave way, and great-aunt rushed her off to Europe to consult a specialist. Her baby boy, this lad on my shoulder, was only a year old at the time. The two women never came back and Duff was so angry that he allowed the boy to grow up thinking that his mother was dead."
"Case of temper," said Cassowary.
"Of three tempers. One was as bad as the others. Well, the boy suffered more particularly because the old aunt at intervals made silly attempts to kidnap him, thereby angering his father and making him keep the boy shut up with old servants."
"The old lady is dead now, isn't she?"
"Yes, and your aunt is coming back to America. I hope to have her meet her son here."
"You will be glad to see your only sister," said the girl gently.
"Tremendously glad—we were devoted to each other as children and we should never have been separated. The love of money, my child, is indeed the root of all evil."
"And she let her great-aunt boss her all these years?"