"Yes, that's my name," and he gave his visitor a close scrutiny, wondering what his errand could be.
"My name is Winter, sir, and I have called for the purpose of having some conversation with you."
"If we could go inside we could talk it over."
"Are you a book-traveller, or anything of that kind?" asked he, snappishly, "for if you are I cannot see you."
"No, sir, I am not. I have called on business too important to be discussed out here."
"Then you had better come inside and tell it," he answered, leading the way into the house.
"I called to see you about that fellow Wyckliffe," said Hal, as he sat down in the library.
"What about him? Are you a friend of his?" snarled the old man.
"No, I am not; and that is my reason for calling on you."
"Curse him, I say. Curse him," added the old man, emphatically.
"You're not the first who has had cause to do that," said Hal, solemnly, wishing to gain his host's confidence.
"Mr. Goodchild, my errand may seem a strange one, but I have had a detailed account given me of his blackguardly behaviour to you and your daughter."
"But what has that to do with you?" he asked, excitedly.
"Stay, Mr. Goodchild. I will tell you all. My friend Morris and I are on his tracks to revenge a cruel wrong he did." And Hal thereupon told him the whole story from the beginning. "Now, sir, I come to offer you my assistance to shew him to your daughter in his true light."
"God knows, I don't," and the poor old fellow hid his face in his hands, and sobbed.
"You must tell me all, sir. Tell me all: there is no time to be lost," said Hal, excitedly.
"There's not much to tell, sir. He will be able to add another notch to his stick, for he has literally broken my heart. I never have discussed my private affairs with anyone, sir, but I will tell you my story, for I feel you are to be trusted.
"She is my only child. I loved her mother dearly for sixteen years, and all that time it was our great sorrow that we were childless, and I fervently thanked God on the day she told me our hopes were to be realized. Had I known the trouble that child was to cost me, I would have been less fervent. A little girl was born to us, and a week later she was motherless."
"Go on," said Hal, encouragingly, as Goody stopped and hesitated.