"That's good!" laughed Leopold. "My father can hardly keep his head above water now. He don't know where he shall get the money to pay the interest on his mortgage, due on the first of July. I should not be much surprised if your grandfather had to foreclose on the Sea Cliff House."
"Of course I don't expect you to find the money for us, only to help me in another way. But what you said about your father reminds me of something I was going to tell you, when I saw you."
"What's that?"
"If my grandad was a decent man, I wouldn't say anything about it," replied Stumpy, apparently troubled with a doubt in regard to the propriety of the revelation he was about to make.
"If there is anything private about it, don't say anything," added Leopold, whose high sense of honor would not permit him to encourage his friend to make an improper use of any information in his possession.
"The conversation I heard was certainly not intended for my ear," continued Stumpy, thoughtfully.
"Then don't mention it."
"I think I ought to tell you, Le, for the business concerns your father."
"No matter whom it concerns, if the information don't belong to you," said Leopold. "If I hear my father and Jones talking about Smith in a private way, I don't think I have any right to go and tell Smith what they say. It makes trouble, and it's none of my business."
"I think you are right in the main, Le; but let me put the question in another form. Suppose you heard two scallawags in your hotel talking about setting my mother's house on fire; suppose you knew the plan they had formed to burn the cottage; would you say it was none of your business, because you happened to hear them, and the conversation was not intended for your ears?"