"Why did he run away?" asked Jane.
"No man can tell another man; a man has to find it out for himself--the
difference between a good woman and a bad one."
"I play that statement to win," interposed Cunningham without opening his
eyes.
"There was a woman?" said Jane.
"A bad one. Pretty and clever as sin. My fault. I should have sent him to
college where he'd have got at least a glimmer of life. But I kept him
under the tutor until the thing happened. He thought he was in love, when
it was only his first woman. She wanted his money--or, more properly
speaking, mine. I had her investigated and found that she was bad all
through. When I told him boldly what she was he called me a liar. I struck
him across the mouth, and he promptly knocked me down."
"Pretty good punch for a youngster," was Cunningham's comment.
"It was," replied Cleigh, grimly. "He went directly to his room, packed,
and cleared out. In that he acted wisely, for at that moment I would have
cast him out had he come with an apology. But the following day I could
not find him; nor did I get track of him until weeks later. He had married
the woman and then found her out. That's all cleared off the slate,
though. She's been married and divorced three times since then."
"Did you expect to see him over here?"
"In Shanghai? No. The sight of him rather knocked me about. You
understand? It was his place to make the first sign. He was in the wrong,
and he has known it all these seven years."
"No," said Jane, "it was your place to make the first advance. If you had
been a comrade to him in his boyhood he would never have been in the
wrong."
"But I gave him everything!"
"Everything but love. Did you ever tell him a fairy story?"
"A fairy story!" Cleigh's face was the essence of bewilderment.
"You put him in the care of a lovable old dreamer, and then expected him
to accept life as you knew it."
Cleigh rumpled his cowlicks. A fairy story? But that was nonsense! Fairy
stories had long since gone out of fashion.
"When I saw you two together an idea popped into my head. But do you care
for the boy?"
"I care everything for him--or I shouldn't be here!"