This was told in the bank, while to Herbert, when alone, he said:
“See what your fooling with that girl would have come to if you had gone on. I haven’t been so blind as you think, and I know you’ve been with her a sight. Nice enough girl, but Tom Grey’s daughter—a man who may go to State’s prison. There’s that in the air, already, headed by Sheldon, who is madder’n a March hare. Serves him right, and Blake don’t give much hope of a dividend. I tell you, if things between you and that girl had amounted to anything, you’d been in a hole; and if you’d stuck to her, by the Lord Harry, I’d cut you off! Yes, sir!”
Had Herbert been Fred Lansing, he would have said to his father: “Louie Grey is my promised wife, and I shall stand by her.”
But he was not Fred Lansing, and he made no reply, although tempted to blurt out the truth. He had no thought of giving Louie up, but he had not the moral courage to face the storm by her side, and she was left to stem the tide alone.
CHAPTER XIV
LOUIE’S COURAGE
A week passed, and the town was full of rumors of every description. That the assets could not begin to meet the liabilities was a certainty, and the losers were furious. Mr. Grey was called a liar, a cheat, a spendthrift and gambler, who had used the money of the poor to enrich himself.
A little lull occurred when it was known that his house was for sale, with his horses and carriage, his wife’s and Louie’s diamonds, the grand piano, and Louie’s wheel, and that the proceeds were to go toward liquidating the debts.
“That’s fair, and they or’to pay me first,” Godfrey Sheldon said, when he heard of it. “All them gimcracks without the house, will bring more’n two thousand dollars, the sum I have in the bank now. Fool that I didn’t take it all out. I’ll go at once and see ’em.”
Harnessing his horse, he drove to the Greys’ residence and asked to see Mr. Grey. It was Louie who met him and told him her father was ill, and saw no one but Mr. Blake and the doctor.
“Then I’ll see your mother,” Mr. Sheldon said.