THE GIRL IN HIS HOUSE
stocks and bonds, and sold this house to you. He took that money also. Legally, before any court in the land, this house and all that's in it are yours."
"But morally?"
"Why bother about that? It was all due to my carelessness. There were mortgages in that wall safe, together with my mother's jewels. You're such a strange, unusual girl, I wasn't sure but you'd run away if I told you. That's all there is to the mystery. He took only half. I am still comfortably situated."
"That wizened little old man who bobbed like a cork on water! And I am really—morally, if not legally—an interloper! All along I sensed something out of the way. Was it you behind those curtains that first night?"
"Yes. But I didn't know then what had happened."
"I must cable Daddy at once."
"No!" There was sweat on his forehead, but it was cold. "I couldn't come back here to live now. I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"Well, I'd always be seeing you in these
143
