Anne, lifting her
eyebrows slightly.

"Right-o! It was because you were engaged to Brady Thorpe. I quite forgot.
I apologise. You were quite right in refusing him. Be that as it may,
however, Percy is as sore as a crab. I can't go around owing money to a
chap who has been refused by my sister, can I? One of the Wintermills,
too. By Jove, it's awful!" He looked extremely distressed.

"You are not to go to Mr. Thorpe," said his mother from the chair into
which she had sunk in order to preserve a look of steadiness. A fine
moisture had come out upon her upper lip. "You must find an honourable way
in which to discharge your debts."

"Isn't my note as good as anybody's?" he demanded.

"No. It isn't worth a dollar."

"Ah, but it _will_ be if Mr. Thorpe buys it," said he in triumph. "He
could discount it for full value, if he wanted to. That's precisely what
makes it good. I'm afraid you don't know very much about high finance,
mother dear."

"Please go away, George," complained Anne. "Mother and I have a great deal
to talk about, and you are a dreadful nuisance when you discover a reason
for coming home so long before dinner-time. Can't you pawn something?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said George.

"Why did you borrow money from Percy Wintermill?" demanded Mrs. Tresslyn.

"There you go, mother, using that word 'borrow' again. I wish you
wouldn't. It's a vulgar word. You might as well say, 'Why did you _swipe_
money from Percy Wintermill?' He lent it to me because he realised how
darned hard-up we are and felt sorry for me, I suppose."

"For heaven's sake, George, don't tell me that you--"

"Don't look so horrified, mother," he interrupted. "I didn't tell him we
were hard-up. I merely said, from time to time, 'Let me take fifty,
Percy.' I can't help it if he _suspects_, can I? And say, Anne, he was so
terribly in love with you that he would have let me take a thousand any
time I wanted it, if I'd had occasion to ask him for it. You ought to be
thankful that I didn't."

"Don't drag me into it," said Anne sharply.

"I admit I was fooled all along," said he, with a rueful sigh. "I had an
idea that you'd be tickled to death to marry into the Wintermill family.
Position, money, family jewels, and all that sort of thing. Everything
desirable except Percy. And then, just when I thought something might come
of it, you up and get engaged to Brady Thorpe, keeping it secret from the
public into the bargain. Confound it, you d