ing, now that I know the truth, that I have always been afraid of
hearing that story, because I had got the impression that there was
something really disgraceful behind."

"Poor Father has had to suffer as bitterly as if he had made the most
ghastly blunder imaginable," said Nealie sadly. "The man's people had a
lot of influence, although they were not really wealthy, and when they
found out that the arm had been taken off they simply hounded Father
down as if he were a criminal. He was boycotted in every direction, and
in the end he had to get out of his practice in a hurry. Then Ducky was
born, and Mother died; and there would have been no home for us at all
if Aunt Judith had not opened her house to take us in."

"Poor Father!" murmured Rupert, and then he thrust his hands deep in his
pockets, and sat staring at the floor, frowning his blackest, until, a
sudden thought striking him, he sat up straight, and asked abruptly:
"What made you dig all that up to-day, after keeping it to yourself so
long?"

"Because I met the man whose arm Father cut off," replied Nealie
quietly.

"You did? Where?" demanded Rupert savagely, and looking as if he would
like to go and have it out with the man there and then.

"A one-armed man passed us in the Botanical Gardens, and Mr. Wallis told
me that a doctor had cut off his arm by mistake, and that the man's name
was Reginald Baxter; then I knew that it must be the man on whose
account Father had to suffer so badly."

"Did he--did he look very poor?" asked Rupert in a hesitating manner;
for if the man had to lose his inheritance as a penalty for losing his
arm, it did seem as if the poor fellow should be pitied.

"He looked as well off as other people, that is to say, he was dressed
in an ordinary way; but Mr. Wallis told me that he was one of the
richest men in the city--a king of finance, he said he was," replied
Nealie.

Rupert gave a long whistle, and then rose to his feet, yawning widely.
"So Father didn't balk the business so badly after all!" he said, and
then went to bed.

CHAPTER VIII

The Start

"I say that this is just ripping!" cried Rumple joyously.

He was sitting under the tilt of a light wagon with Rupert, the two
small boys, and Ducky, while Nealie and Sylvia occupied the post of
honour in front, and guided the steps of the big horse which was to draw
the wagon to Hammerville.

Nealie held reins and whip in quite a professional style, and if she