betrayed an awakening purpose. Everything she said stuck deeply in the
boy's mind, and whenever he thought of Granny's life afterwards, he had
the impression of having learned all about it at that one time, although
the likelihood is that many details were picked up by degrees and
dovetailed into the memory of that first narrative as integral parts
of it.

"Your grandmother was not born to be a servant," his mother began. "She
was a rich man's daughter, and there was not a thing her father didn't
want to do for her. Yet he left her in the hands of strangers who
cheated her of her rights and treated her as if she had been a
beggar...."

"Why did they do it," the boy asked, quite unable to grasp the idea of
such a thing.

"Because they could make a little more money that way, and because they
cared for nothing but money. Promise me, Keith, that whatever happens to
you, and whatever the temptation be, you will never put money above
everything else."

Keith shook his head earnestly, meaning it to be sign of assent. He was
a highly impressible child, and when his mother spoke to him like that,
he used literally to choke with a feeling that he could never, never do
anything but what she asked, but when another rush of feeling swept over
him, the old promises were also likely to be swept out of his mind.

"Those people did the worst thing any one can do to anybody else. They
twisted Granny's life so that it could never be set right again. And so
she became what you see her now...."