I didn't."

"There, there, don't think of it again," said Mr. Crowninshield
kindly. "I should have remembered you are not a man's age and cannot
be expected to have the judgment that goes with fifty or sixty years
of living. Even old codgers like myself blunder sometimes."

His eyes twinkled and in the radiance of his smile Walter saw the last
cloud of wrath roll from his brow. Truly, as Jerry had affirmed, Mr.
Crowninshield's rages were like thunderstorms--awesome while they
lasted but unfailingly followed by sunshine.

CHAPTER IX

MORE CLUES

Notwithstanding Mr. Crowninshield's comforting words, however, Walter
could not shake off the consciousness that take it all in all he had
blundered desperately throughout the entire train of events connected
with Lola and his vanity was sadly hurt. If any good had come out of
what he had done it was more by chance than as a result of wise
calculation. He had meant well, that was all that could be said, and
the patronage these words implied was by no means flattering to one
anxious to make himself valuable to his employer.

What a boob he was; what a blunderer! The name Mr. Crowninshield had
so wrathfully bestowed on him was unquestionably deserved. It fitted
him like a glove. The fact that the great man had afterward sought to
palliate the sting of the term did not actually help matters any. What
he had thought in the beginning and so spontaneously declared was what
he really believed, and as his dispirited retainer observed to
himself, who could blame him?

He couldn't have made a worse start at a job had he tried. In his
depression he almost wished he had never seen Surfside, the
Crowninshields, or anything belonging to them.

Nor was his melancholy lightened when he found on entering the house
that the telephone line was busy and that some one was calling Mr.
Crowninshield. Goodness only knew how long it might be now before the
wire would be free for the master to reach and warn Bob to keep secret
the tidings his brother had tattled to him. Wasn't it infernal luck to
encounter this delay? If he had only held his tongue in the first
place! Well, it had taught him a lesson. The next time he got mixed up
in somebody else's affairs he would keep them to himself.

Meandering aimlessly outdoors he sat down on the steps to wait until
the owner of the house should finish his conversation.

For a time he remained quite quiet; but when the minutes lengthened
into a