"I'm in trouble, John Cardigan," he
said simply, "and I'm not big enough to handle it alone."
The leonine old man smiled, and his smile had all the sweetness of a
benediction. His boy was in trouble and had come to him. Good! Then
he would not fail him. "Sit down, son, and tell the old man all about
it. Begin at the beginning and let me have all the angles of the
angle."
Bryce obeyed, and for the first time John Cardigan learned of his
son's acquaintance with Shirley Sumner and the fact that she had been
present in Pennington's woods the day Bryce had gone there to settle
the score with Jules Rondeau. In the wonderful first flush of his
love a sense of embarrassment, following his discovery of the fact
that his father and Colonel Pennington were implacable enemies, had
decided Bryce not to mention the matter of the girl to John Cardigan
until the ENTENTE CORDIALE between Pennington and his father could be
reestablished, for Bryce had, with the optimism of his years,
entertained for a few days a thought that he could bring about this
desirable condition of affairs. The discovery that he could not,
together with his renunciation of his love until he should succeed in
protecting his heritage and eliminating the despair that had come
upon his father in the latter's old age, had further operated to
render unnecessary any discussion of the girl with the old man.
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