he one I had seen in his hand, was
missing. He remembered laying it on the mantel and my brother and
Sabrina had seen him do it. It had contained over a thousand dollars
in bank notes. The next day my father found out that my brother had
taken the early train out of North Hero. I was too young to understand
much about it, but I used to pray, first, that my brother would come
back and tell them he _didn't_ take the wallet and then I'd pray that
he'd never, never come back, so that they couldn't put him in prison."

"That must have been Anne's grandfather," Nancy was thinking.

"He did come back, three weeks later," Miss Milly went on, "and there
was a scene much worse than the night of the storm. They forgot I was
in the room. My father accused my brother of stealing the wallet and
refused to let him say a word. 'I want no lies added to your other
sins,' was what he said--I can hear him now. And my brother looked as
though something had struck him. Then my father told him that if he'd
take himself off and never darken the doors of Happy House again, nor
communicate with his family in any way, the matter would be dropped
forever--for the sake of the Leavitt name. My brother stood there for
a moment; I remember, I wanted to run to him! Oh, I've wished I
_had_--so often! But I was afraid of Sabrina--and my father. And then
my brother turned and walked out of the room--and out of the
door--and--down the path--and----"

Poor Miss Milly, worn out by the excitement of the day, began to cry
softly.

Nancy had to jerk herself to break the spell of the story. Her face
wrinkled in a frown. "It--is--dreadful, isn't it, Aunt Milly? I don't
mean his spending money and running debts and things, I
mean--your--your father's horrid--_mercilessness_! Why, the courts
don't treat the worst criminals like that! And they call it Leavitt
pride--and honor! _I_ call it injustice. I wish you _had_ just run up
and kissed him, then. It might have made everything so different!"

"So _that's_ why I can't speak of Anne's father or grandfather," Nancy
was thinking back of her frown. "And that's why Anne knew so little
about her aunts!" Then aloud: "I'm glad you told me, Aunt Milly.
It'll help us--be pals. We'll have other afternoons--like to-day--out
in the sunshine. But now you must rest. And I'll get ready to face
Aunt Sabrina!"

"She'll be dreadfully cross," sighed Miss Milly, with the glow all gone
from her face.