Sylvester looked out for that. Five hundred thousand,
droppin' in, as you might say, unexpected, ought to soften anybody's
heart; and I judge even that feller's got some bowels of mercy."
He changed the subject hastily, but Caroline asked no more questions.
She never alluded to the lost estate, never expressed any regrets,
nor asked to know who it was that had seized her all. The captain had
expected her to ask, had been ready with the same answer he had given
Stephen, but when he hinted she herself had forbade his continuing.
"Don't tell me about it," she begged. "I don't want to know any more.
Father did wrong, but--but I know he did not mean to. He was a good,
kind father to me, and I loved him. This man whose money he took had a
right to it, and now it is his. He doesn't wish us to know who he is, so
Steve says, and I'm glad. I don't want to know, because if I did I
might hate him. And," with a shudder, "I am trying so hard not to hate
anybody."
Her make-believe liking for the little home became more and more real
as spring drew near. She began to take an interest in it, in the flower
garden, in the beds beside the porch, where the peonies and daffodils
were beginning to show green heads above the loam, and in the household
affairs.
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