Alice was beginning to get to the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as if a little good with my money, to make up for the past. All was going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me.
"I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his foot.
"'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman within hail.'
"Well, down they came to settle down to a quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down the right path it would have made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. The daughter told us as much. Do you not deduce something from that?"