“You mean that you—er—misappropriated the money?”
“I was an embezzler, strictly speaking.”
“I see.”
“Perhaps you wonder why I told you this,” he said, bending forward.
“No, we understand,” said Miss Rebecca.
“We understand perfectly,” exclaimed Miss Carry with gentle warmth.
“It’s very honest of you, Mr. Anderson,” said Miss Rebecca after a musing pause.
“I’ve never been dishonest since then,” he remarked naïvely. “But a year ago I wouldn’t have told you this, though it’s been in the back of my mind as a rankling sore, growing as I grew in wealth and respectability. I made a bluff at believing that it didn’t matter, and that a thing done has an end. Well, now I’ve made a clean breast of it to the ones who have a right to know. I should like you to tell Mabel.”
As he spoke the lovers appeared in the near distance at the edge of the lawn, coming up from the beach. “But I don’t think it will be necessary to tell my son,” he added yearningly.
“Certainly not” said Miss Rebecca with emphasis.