And I think--I think
he was right--partly."
"And Larry--he's the reason you're telling me now?"
"I think so. But there are other reasons." Making a clean breast of
things though she was, she felt she dared not trust Dick with the
secret of her father. "I--I wanted to clear things up as far as I was
responsible. That's one reason I'm telling you. There was the chance
you might sometime find out that Larry had known me and suspect him; I
wanted you to know the truth of what he'd really done. And I wanted to
tell you the truth about myself, so you'd despise and forget me,
instead of perhaps carrying around romantic delusions about me after
I've gone. And there's another reason. I'd like to tell you--for
you've been everything that's fine to me--if it won't offend you."
"Go on," he said huskily.
"Barney Palmer picked you out as the victim--you didn't know you were
being picked out--because he said that you were an easy mark. That you
took things for exactly what they pretended to be, and didn't care
what you did with your money. That you never would settle down into a
responsible person. I'm telling you all this, Dick, because I don't
want you to be what Barney said."
Dick slumped into a chair, at last beaten down by this cumulative
revelation.
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