"Oh, no."

"I guess you mean 'Oh, yes'; and I won't keep you long, but
there's something we got to get fixed up, and I'd rather talk to
you than I would to your mother, because you're a smart girl and
always friendly; and I want to be sure I'm understood. Now,
listen."

"I will," Alice promised, smiling faintly.

"I never even hardly noticed your brother was still working for
me," he explained, earnestly. "I never thought anything about
it. My sons sort of tried to tease me about the way your
father--about his taking up this glue business, so to speak--and
one day Albert, Junior, asked me if I felt all right about your
brother's staying there after that, and I told him--well, I just
asked him to shut up. If the boy wanted to stay there, I didn't
consider it my business to send him away on account of any
feeling I had toward his father; not as long as he did his work
right--and the report showed he did. Well, as it happens, it
looks now as if he stayed because he HAD to; he couldn't quit
because he'd 'a' been found out if he did. Well, he'd been
covering up his shortage for a considerable time--and do you know
what your father practically charged me with about that?"

"No, Mr. Lamb."

In his resentment, the old gentleman's ruddy face became ruddier
and his husky voice huskier. "Thinks I kept the boy there
because I suspected him! Thinks I did it to get even with HIM!