lt as his
father's. Sometimes it is six of one and half a dozen of the other;
sometimes the father is a brute, but more often the son is a scamp, a
worthless fellow, who will settle down to nothing, and brings discredit on
his family. So you are quite right, Will, not to form any hard judgment on
your grandfather till you know how it all came about."

"I certainly don't mean to, mother. Of course I have so little
recollection of my father that it would not worry me much if I found that
it were his fault, though of course I would rather know that he was not to
blame. Still, I should wish to like my grandfather if I could, and if I
heard that my poor father was really entirely to blame I should not grieve
much over it."

"I can't help thinking that he was to blame, Will. He was a
curious-looking man, with a very bitter expression at times on his face,
as if he didn't care for anyone in the world, except perhaps yourself, and
he often left you alone in the village when he went and wandered about by
himself on the moor."

"Well, well," Will said, "it matters very little to me which way it is. It
is a very old story now, and I dare say that there were faults on both
sides."

Will spent a long day with the old people and then returned to
Scarborough, taking the violin with him. When he told how he had found it
Mr. Archer took the instrument and examined it carefully.

"I think really," he said at last, "that this violin may prove a valuable
clue, as valuable almost as that coat of arms. That might very well have
been picked up or bought for a trifle at a pawnshop, or come into the
hands of its possessor in some accidental way. But this is different;
this, unless I am greatly mistaken, is a real Amati, and therefore worth
at least a couple of hundred guineas. That could hardly have come
accidentally into the hands of a wandering musician; it must be a relic of
a time when he was in very different circumstances, and may well have been
his before he left the home of his childhood."

"Thank you very much for the information, Mr. Archer! I see at once that
it may very well be a strong link in the chain."

Two days later he returned to London. Mr. Palethorpe was greatly pleased
to hear that he had found so valuable a clue.

"I don't care a rap for family," he said, "but at the same time I suppose
every man would like his daughter--" Here he stopped abruptly. "I mean to
say," he said, "would like to have for his son-in-law