Part 40 (2/2)

”Beatrice rode over this afternoon and she had something on her mind.

What do you think's the matter?”

”For one thing, the Colonel must have lost a good deal since wheat began to go down. Then I heard something about the failure of an English bank; Lance once told me the family had shares in it. I expect the stoppage made a difference in their income.”

”That doesn't quite account for it. Do you know of anything else?”

”Gerald may have been giving them trouble again. I know he has borrowed a good deal of money which he'd find it difficult to pay, and I'm afraid he's been mortgaging his land.”

This confirmed some of Mrs. Broadwood's suspicions; but the matter was still far from clear.

”The Colonel would be very mad about the mortgage,” she said. ”Still, it's Gerald's land, and he can do what he likes with it.”

”Not altogether. He's bound by the settlement covenant, and, as his father gave him the land, he ought to respect his opinions. Mowbray's convinced that to let in strangers would be hurtful to Allenwood.”

While feeling sure that Gerald was the cause of the Mowbrays' troubles, Mrs. Broadwood did not think that Beatrice would marry a man she did not care for in order to benefit the settlement. There must be another reason.

”Suppose Gerald had already mortgaged his farm and wanted some more money, how would he borrow it?”

”He'd find it hard, as he has no security to offer,” Broadwood answered with a smile. ”I don't know much about these matters, and don't want to know anything more, but I believe the usual plan is something like this: you give the lender a note, an engagement to pay in, we'll say, three months, and get somebody to endorse it. His putting down his name makes him liable for the amount, and if the lender was satisfied about him, he'd give you the money at once and take off as much interest as he could.”

”But who'd guarantee Gerald in that way?”

”I don't know. I certainly would not.”

”He would have to be a man who was known to have money,” she persisted.

”I suppose so; it would naturally make the transaction easier. But it's not our business to pry into the Mowbrays' affairs.”

”Oh, no,” said Mrs. Broadwood. ”Still, I was sorry for Beatrice and it made me curious.”

She changed the subject and after a time took up a book as an excuse for silence. She wanted to think, because she now felt sure that Gerald's financial difficulties accounted for the pressure that was being put upon Beatrice. The girl was being forced to marry Brand because he would supply the money to save her brother from disgrace. Mrs. Broadwood felt that it must be disgrace and not an ordinary debt. There would, however, be no great difficulty if he had given some one a note, for the man who endorsed it must have known that he might be called upon to pay. But suppose he had not heard about the transaction at all? Mrs. Broadwood dropped her book, for she saw that she had guessed the riddle. Gerald had not asked the man to guarantee him; he had forged his name. Taking this for granted made everything plain.

Then she began to wonder whose name Gerald had forged. It could not be his father's, for Mowbray was known to be far from rich. The only man with much money at Allenwood was Brand, but Mrs. Broadwood thought it could not be Brand, because she knew Mowbray's pride and believed that in spite of his anxiety to keep the matter quiet he would not force his daughter to marry a man his son had robbed. Admitting this, she must look for some one else. Then it dawned upon her that the man was Harding.

”What did you say?” Broadwood asked, looking up from his paper.

”I was thinking,” his wife replied. ”S'pose I must have thought aloud.

Anyway it wouldn't interest you. How's wheat going?”

”Down,” said Broadwood, and there was silence again.

Mrs. Broadwood saw what she could do. She admitted that she might make a deplorable mess of things if she were mistaken, but the need was serious enough to justify some risk. She had courage and she was fond of Beatrice.

The next afternoon she drove across the prairie to the spot where she thought Harding was at work. She found him busy with his engine at the end of a wide belt of plowing which the land packer had rolled down hard and smooth.

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