“Of course I shall try,” answered North. “Do you think I want others to bear the blame, even though the real defaulter may be a brother? Besides, Oscar, if it is true, as I sometimes fear, that Cyril is getting into dangerous company and dangerous ways, do you believe that it is true kindness to seek to shelter him at the expense of truth? Discovery and exposure at the outset have been the saving of many a young man in like circumstances. I don’t know whether you know anything about Cyril’s goings on just now, but I have an impression that he is getting amongst a set of betting and racing men, and that these frequent journeys to London, ostensibly to read at the British Museum, have in reality a very different object.”
“I know very little about Cyril now,” answered Oscar. “He was friendly at first, and used to invite me to go about with him, but latterly I have been busy; and I found too much card-playing among his friends for my taste—or my pocket. For several months I have seen very little of him.”
North’s mouth looked set and grim.
“If he is taking to play, and attending race meetings, as I fear, it would easily account for his desire for money, although my father has been liberal to him; and I know he has given him extra help latterly, believing it to go in fees or something for this law reading. I hope I do not wrong Cyril when I express strong doubts whether the bulk of it is used for such purposes at all.”
Oscar saw by all this that North was seriously disturbed about his brother, and he was able to understand then why it was that he had from the first been disposed to think Cyril might have had a hand in the abduction of the money. It was a comfort to him to feel that North’s trust in him was not shaken, but he knew that he had a bad time before him both at home and in the office.
Nor was he mistaken. That a sum of forty pounds and over had been made away with, and a counterfeit receipt given for it, were facts there was no blinking. And it was known that Oscar had received the money, and could give no satisfactory account of what he had done with it.
His fellow-clerks, with whom he was popular, did not suspect him of theft, but concluded he had been swindled by some fellow at Jones and Wright’s.
“He is so easy-going, he’d never notice or care so long as he got any sort of receipt,” they said one to the other; but Oscar knew he had never paid the money over, and disliked the thought that blame should attach to anybody through him.
His uncle said very little to him, but his manner became more cold and formal; and before long a new confidential clerk was introduced in the place of Curtis, Mr. Tom remarking in the hearing of the junior clerks—
“I had hoped not to fill that place, but to let the younger men already here have the chance of working up to it; but I find it does not do to be without an experienced and trustworthy head.”