it. Well, listen: here's my judgment on the matter. First, I think you were very foolish to stake your money on such an uncertain thing as horse-racing, and in taking Mr. Bassett's advice. If Mr. Bassett knows so much about horse-racing, why hasn't Mr. Bassett made a fortune for himself?"
"Well, but surely———" began Goulburn.
She shook a dainty finger at him.
"Don't interrupt," she commanded. "Because you know very well that I'm right, and so you should listen in silence. Then I think you were very wrong in using the money intended for your sister. Because, you see, however good your intentions were in respect to making more of it, you've lost it."
Goulburn nodded his head miserably.
"Yes!" he said bitterly. "That's just the worst of it. It doesn't matter how you condemn me—you can't make me feel worse about myself than I do."
"Well, I'm not condemning you. I've seen and know of a good many things done in what some men call business that were a million times wickeder than your little bit of thoughtlessness. If you take somebody else's money without their leave, and speculate with it, and prove successful, and share the profits with them handsomely, that's all right every time; if you're not successful and the money's gone, it's all wrong, very much wrong—for you."
Goulburn had watched her inquisitively during this speech. He smiled as she finished it.
"I think," he said, with the half-shyness which she
