ausible words. Oh, what trust
can be so pure, and at the same time so foolish, as that placed by a
mother in a beloved son! Mrs. Gum had never known but one idol on earth;
he who now stood before her, lightly laughing at her fears, making his
own tale good. She leaned forward and laid her hands upon his shoulders
and kissed him with that impassioned fervour that some mothers could tell
of, and whispered that she would trust him wholly.

Mr. Willy extricated himself with as little impatience as he could help:
these embraces were not to his taste. And yet the boy did love his
mother. She was not at all a wise woman, or a clever one; rather silly,
indeed, in many things; but she was fond of him. At this period he was
young-looking for his age, slight, and rather undersized, with an
exceedingly light complexion, a wishy-washy sort of face with no colour
in it, unmeaning light eyes, white eyebrows, and ragged-looking light
hair with a tawny shade upon it.

Willy Gum departed for London, and entered on his engagement in the great
banking-house of Goldsworthy and Co.

How he went on in it Calne could not get to learn, though it was
moderately inquisitive upon the point. His father and mother heard from
him occasionally; and once the clerk took a sudden and rather mysterious
journey to London, where he stayed for a whole week. Rumour said--I
wonder where such rumours first have their rise--that Willy Gum had
fallen into some trouble, and the clerk had had to buy him out of it at
the cost of a mint of money. The clerk, however, did not confirm this;
and one thing was indisputable: Willy retained his place in the
banking-house. Some people looked on this fact as a complete refutation
of the rumour.

Then came a lull. Nothing was heard of Willy; that is, nothing beyond the
reports of Mrs. Gum to her gossips when letters arrived: he was well, and
getting on well. It was only the lull that precedes a storm; and a storm
indeed burst on quiet Calne. Willy Gum had robbed the bank and
disappeared.

In the first dreadful moment, perhaps the only one who did _not_
disbelieve it was Clerk Gum. Other people said there must be some
mistake: it could not be. Kind old Lord Hartledon came down in his
carriage to the clerk's house--he was too ill to walk--and sat with
the clerk and the weeping mother, and said he was sure it could not be
so bad as was reported. The next morning saw handbills--great, staring,
large-typed handbills--offering