I rose to my feet.
"George! George!" I cried.

"I--I can't say to you what I should like.
But why--WHY did you shield me?
And lie for me?
Why did you do it?
I was hardly more than a stranger." He sighed.

"Don't know," he answered.

"I never could quite see why a man's sins should be visited on the widows and fatherless.

And, of course, I realized that you and your mother changed your name and came down here to get away from gossip and talk.