The Heir of the Keelers under a Social Cloud 37 



It was then with veritable alarm that Mr. Keeler saw in the 

 pages of Saturday Night, which had been making for months 

 onslaughts on the frenzied finance and real estate plunging of 

 Toronto and other Canadian cities, references to a club scandal, 

 which, while giving no names, made it perfectly plain that the 

 coterie to which his son belonged had gotten into trouble with 

 the House Committee, not perhaps primarily on account of high 

 play, but because a member had been accused of cheating. Of 

 course the scandal was investigated behind closed doors; but 

 to Mr. Keeler the yet more jaded appearance of his son and the 

 hints about certain young men made it quite obvious to him 

 that his son had been in some manner involved. So matters 

 continued for a short time; the son, while seeming to be home 

 earlier at times, did not in any way assume his oldtime jaunty 

 manner, but rather his irritability and lack of attention to the 

 ordinary amenities of home life increased. The climax was 

 reached, however, when Mr. Keeler, coming home late from 

 an entertainment in his auto, suddenly came around the corner 

 upon his son in a maudlin state, his brother, Tom, and a friend 

 having been with difficulty conveying him home, trusting that 

 the house had as usual become quiet and that the intoxicated 

 young man could be slipped into bed unnoticed. Mr. Keeler 

 now understood and realised what months of vague hints and 

 dubious appearances meant, and, feeling that the family honour 

 was at stake, became as anxious as Tom that the matter wh'ch 

 he hoped was the first serious aberrancy should be kept from 

 the mother of the family. His stern but quiet tone served in 

 some degree to sober the young man and, with Tom's assistance, 

 matters were arranged so that the household remained ignorant 

 of what had happened. 



Mr. Joseph Keeler was much too prompt in business matters 

 to allow an affair of this kind to be overlooked or to drift, so 

 that, when John was known to be sleeping heavily, he requested 

 Tom to come to the library. The generous, open-hearted brother 

 came feeling as if he were the culprit, and, while loyalty to his 

 brother demanded that he should make the matter appear as 

 little serious as possible, his own frank nature as well as his 

 knowledge of his father prevented him from attempting in any 



