“Why did ye go up there?”
“Curiosity.”
“Not kindness—just a little bit?”
“I wanted to see the work of a man meaner than the Meanest Man in Our Square,” he said with a sour grin.
Molly Dunstan flushed.
“I'd not be letting them call me that!” she declared. “And I'll not believe it true of ye.” This was, indeed, an advance upon the dim realm of personal relationship, but Molly's loyal Irish blood was up. “What ails ye at the world, at all!” she demanded.
“I'll tell you since you ask,” he replied defiantly. “I'm getting even with it for treating me like a dog.”
“So that's it.” There was a pause. “Would ye tell me about it!” she asked shyly.
Much to his astonishment, Miles Morse discovered that he wanted to tell her about it. Quite to his chagrin, he found that it didn't seem a very convincing indictment, when he tried to formulate it. However, he did his best.
“A man that I thought my friend cheated me out of the first ten thousand dollars that I made.”