"You won't take it?"

"That leaves me more free," said Pemberton.

"To poison my darling's mind?" groaned Mrs. Moreen.

"Oh your darling's mind--!" the young man laughed.

She fixed him a moment, and he thought she was going to break out
tormentedly, pleadingly: "For God's sake, tell me what _is_ in it!" But
she checked this impulse--another was stronger. She pocketed the
money--the crudity of the alternative was comical--and swept out of the
room with the desperate concession: "You may tell him any horror you
like!"




CHAPTER VI


A couple of days after this, during which he had failed to profit by so
free a permission, he had been for a quarter of an hour walking with his
charge in silence when the boy became sociable again with the remark:
"I'll tell you how I know it; I know it through Zenobie."

"Zenobie? Who in the world is _she_?"

"A nurse I used to have--ever so many years ago. A charming woman. I