The man linked his hands behind his white hair, and gazed abstractedly out down the valley.
“It’s tough, Sis,” he said with a sigh.
Blanche shook her head.
“Tough isn’t the word, Silver-Thatch, my friend,” she said with a light laugh. “If you’d seen that little girl’s face, if you’d watched her breath come and go as I talked ‘frock’ to her, I guess I’d surely have had a new sister-in-law in a week. You—you big, soft-hearted old thing, you couldn’t have stood up to the pathos of it all for a half-hour. You’d have loosened your bank-roll right away, and whisked her off where there was life and such pleasure as that poor little kid has never known. I’m glad you owe her something, Jim. And I’m glad you’re going to let me help you pay it.”
The man nodded.
“And Larry did his share,” he smiled.
“Like a jewel. Isn’t it queer? He was most like a kid about acting a sort of Father Christmas. Oh, he planned the way of it. He planted my goods right in her doorway, and quit without a soul getting wise. It cost him a night and more from his bed, but he was glad enough to do it. And, anyway, I’d threatened him. But she was sore on you in her little queer way, Jim. I think she was feeling bad you’d quit her without handing her a name. But I had to smile at her name for you. I just love it to death. Silver-Thatch! That goes with me all the time.”
Blanche laughed. Then her expression fell serious again and her even brows drew together.
“But you couldn’t have risked your name with her. I know that. So it would have meant lying the same as I had to lie. Not about my name, but where I’m located. You know, Jim, it’s a pretty terrible thing to lie to innocence like that. It’s like lying to your own child. I’ve acted a lie once to that kid, and never again. I had to do it for your sake, old man. And I did it as I’d do most things for you. If we’re going to help Molly Marton it must be done without lying. I’m sorry, boy. But I’ve been thinking it a week now since ever I first set eyes on that child. Now you want to think, and see how it needn’t happen again. Maybe none of us can get through life without lying. I’m no better than anyone else. I can lie all day to folks that don’t matter. The whole world of society needs to lie, or things would break up in five seconds. But I can’t have innocent child eyes looking up into mine, full of trust and truth, and know I’m lying.”
Jim dropped his hands from behind his head, and one of them removed the empty pipe from his mouth.