"I think you did perfectly right," the old Squire said after a pause.
"You did what I myself, I am sure, would have done under the
circumstances."
"Shall you tell grandmother Ruth?" I asked.
The old Squire considered it for several moments before he ventured to
speak again. At last he lifted his head.
"On the whole I think it will be better if we do not," he replied. "It
will give her a great shock, particularly Jonathan's second marriage up
there in Canada. His disappearance has now largely faded from her mind.
It is best so.
"Not that I justify it," he continued. "I think really that he did a
shocking thing. But I understand it and overlook it in him. He bore his
life there with Jotham just as long as he could. Jock had that kind of
temperament. After Anice died there was nothing to keep him there.
"The fault was not all with Jotham," the old Squire continued
reflectively. "Jotham was just what he was, hasty, willful and a poor
head for management. No, the real fault was in the mistake in giving up
the farm and all the rest of the property to Jotham when he came home to
live. Jonathan should have kept his farm in his own hands and managed it
himself as long as he was well and retained his faculties.
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