“Yes; you said I—I should not have my property,” she replied, avoiding the harsh words he had used.
“Heavens! how indifferent you are: I said I had made you a beggar. Not a pauper in the streets has less than you will have when the debts are all paid,” he cried, sinking into a chair by her side, the sweat rolling off his face.
“Yes, yes, I know what you mean,” Brownie said, arousing herself when she saw how distressed he appeared, then added: “But please, Mr. Conrad, do not look so—do not feel so badly about it. I know auntie trusted you fully, and I am sure it was something you could not help; I dare say, I shall not mind it so very much when I get used to it,” she concluded, gently.
The stricken lawyer groaned aloud. He had been prepared for tears, and sobs, and censure; and here the noble girl was forgetting all her own wrong, and striving to comfort him for his share in it.
“Dear Mr. Conrad, will you please explain this disagreeable affair to me? I see it is troubling you very much. I do not understand much about business, but I will listen attentively, and try to comprehend,” she said, gently.
“God bless you, dear child, for your goodness to me,” he said, taking her hand in one of his, while he wiped his moist brow with the other. “I do not deserve it from you. Yes, I will explain at once, and have this dreadful burden off my mind; it has nearly crushed me for years. You know, dear, that I have had the care of your aunt’s property for the last forty years—in fact, nearly ever since she came to this city to live.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, for thirty years I was faithful to my trust. Had any one told me then that to-day I should be a thief, I would have felled him to the ground and spurned him with my foot. Ten years ago a dear friend of mine died, leaving his only child in my care, together with a property of fifty thousand dollars. I invested it in what I believed to be a sound concern, but in less than a year it failed, and my friend’s child was penniless.”
“How sorry I am,” was Brownie’s simple comment, and deeply impressed in the lawyer’s tale.
He smiled bitterly, but clasping her hand more firmly, went on: