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Show a "Of course we shall, papa." Tha doctor patted the two caressing: beads. "These are my own two girls affain," he cried. "It has been my fault as much as yours. I have been astray, and you have followed me In my error. It was only by seeing your mistakes that I have become conscious of my own. Let us set it aside, and neither say nor think anything more about it" CHAPTER XI. A BLOT FROM THE BLUE. O BT THE CLEV-erness CLEV-erness of the two girls a dark cloud was thinned away and turned Into sunshine. Over one of them, alas, another an-other cloud was gathering, which could not be so easily eas-ily dispersed. Of these three households house-holds which fate win d a cheap tessoi you to take nothing upon V. u m uusiness, and to insist upon knowing exactly what your partner is doing, however senior he may be to you. 'Tours faithfully. faith-fully. JEREMIAH PEARSON." "Great heavens!" groaned the admiral, admir-al, "he has absconded." "And left me both a bankrupt and a thief." "No, no, Harold," sobbed his mother. "All will be right. What matter about money!" "Money, mother! It is my honor." "The boy is right. It is his honor, and my honor, for his is mine. Tills is a sore trouble, mother, when we thought our life's troubles were ail behind us, but. we will bear It as we have borne others." He held out his stringy hand, and the two old folk sat with bowed grey heads, their fingers intertwined, strong In each other's love and sympathy. sym-pathy. "We were too happy," she sighed. "But it is God's will, mother." "Yes, John, it is God's will." "And yet it is bitter to bear. I could have lost all, the house, money, rank I could have borne it. But at my age my honor the honor of an admiral of the fleet." "No honor can be lost, John, where no dishonor has been done. What have you done? What has Harold done? There is no question of honor." The old man shook his head, but Harold Har-old had already called together his clear practical sense, which for an Instant in the presence of this frightful blow had deserted him. "The mater is right, dad," said he. ."It Is bad enough, heaven knows, but we must not take too dark a view of It. After all, this insolent letter Is In itself evidence that I had nothing to do with the schemes of the base villain who wrote it." "They may think It prearranged." "They could not. My whole life crie? out against the thought. They could not. look me in the face and entertain it." "No, boy, not if they have eyes In their heads," cried the admiral, plucking pluck-ing up courage at the sight of the flashing flash-ing eyes and brave, defiant face. "We have the letter and we have your character. char-acter. We'll weather it yet between them. It's my fault from the beginning begin-ning for choosing such a landshark for your consort. God help me, I thought I was finding such an opening for you." "Dear dad! How could you possibly know? As he says In his letter, It has given me a lesson. But he was so muh older and so much more experienced, that it was hard for me to ask to examine ex-amine his books. But we must wast no time. I must go to the city." "What will you do?" (TO BB CONTINOID.) nlstie.. . he. "Now that I trunk of L, t..cre is a, likeness." "He is a man of-fron, admiral a man without a heart. I should shock you if I were to tell you What I have endured en-dured from my brother My father's wealth was divided equally between us. His own share he ran through in five years, and he has tried since then by every trick of a cunning, low-minded man, by base cajolery, by legal quibbles, quib-bles, by brutal intimidation, to juggle me out of my share as well. There Is no villainy of which the man is not capable. ca-pable. Oh, I know my brother, Jeremiah. Jere-miah. I know him and I am prepared for him." . , .. "This is all- new to me, ma'am. 'Pon my word, I hardly know what to say to It. I thank you for having spoken so plainly. From what you say, this is a poor sort of consort for a man to sail with. Perhaps Harold would do well to cut him adrift.'' "Without losing a day." "Well, we shall talk It over. Tou may be sure of that. But here we are at the station, so I will just see you into your carriage and then home to see what my wife says to the matter." As he trudged homeward, thoughtful and perplexed, he was surprised to hear a shout behind him, and to see Harold running down the road after him. "Why, dad," he cried. "I have just come from town, and the first thing I saw was your back as you marched away. But you are such a quick walker that I had to run to catch you." The admiral's smi.e of pleasure had broken his stern fa,'s into a thousand wrinkles. "Tou art , early to-day," said he. ' "Yes, I wanted to t consult you." "Nothing wrong?" j "Oh no, only an inconvenience." "What Is it, then'?" "How much have we In our private account?" "Pretty fair. Sor ; eight hundred, I think." "Oh, half that will be ample. It was rather thoughtless of Pearson." "What then?" j "Well, you see, dad, when he went away upon this Ilttlo holiday to Havre he left me to pay accounts and so on. He told me that there was enough at the bank for all claims. I had occasion on Tuesday to pay away two cheques, one for 80 and the ther for 120, and here they are returned with a bank notice no-tice that we have alr eady overdrawn to the extent of seme h indreds" The admiral loo ked very grave. "What's the meaning- of that, then?" he asked. j "Oh, it can easily ie set right. You see Pearson invests all the spare capital cap-ital and keeps as small a margin as possible in the bank. Still It was too bad for him to allow, me even to run a risk of having a ch eque returned. I have written to him and demanded his authority to sell out some slock, and I have written an explanation to these people. In the meantime, however, I have had to issue s everal cheques; so had thrown together, two had already been united by ties of love. It was destined, however, that a bond of another an-other sort should connect the Westma-ootts Westma-ootts witti the Hay Denvers. Between the admiral and the widow a very oordial feeling had existed since the day when the old seaman had hauled down his flag and ohanged his opinions; granting to the yachtswoman all that he had refused to the reformer. His own frank and downright nature respected the same qualities in his neighbor, and a friendliness sprang up between them which was more like that which exists between two men, founded upon esteem and a community of tastes. "By the way, admiral," said Mrs. Westmacott, as they walked together iswn to the station, "I understand that this boy of yours in the intervals of paying his devotions to Miss Walker is doing something upon 'change." "Yes, ma'am and there is no man of his age who is doing so well. He's drawing ahead I can tell you, ma'am. Some of those that started with him are hull down astarn now. He touched his five hundred last year, and before be-fore he's thirty he'll be making the four figures." "The reason I asked is that I have small investments to make myself from time to time, and my present broker is a rascal. I should be very glad to o It through your son." "It Is very kind of you, ma'am. His partner Is away on a holiday, and Harold Har-old would like to push on a bit and how what he can do. You know the poop Isn't big enough to hold the lieutenant lieu-tenant when the skipper's on shore." "I suppose he charges the usual half per oejit?" "Don't know, I'm sure, ma'am. I'll swear he does what Is right and prop-ear." prop-ear." "That Is what I usually pay ten shll-Bags shll-Bags In the hundred pounds. If you see aim before I do, just ask Mm to get me five thousand in Ner Zealands. It |