. He
gave my father some very good hints about shares, but my father never
took them. When my parents both died, Mr. Ravengar was extremely
sympathetic, and offered me a situation in his office. I took it. I
became his secretary. He was always very polite and considerate to me,
except sometimes when he got angry with everybody, including me. He
couldn't help being rude then. He had an old clerk named Powitt, who sat
in the outer office, and seemed to do nothing. Powitt had just brains
enough to gamble, and he gambled in the shares of Mr. Ravengar's
companies. I know he lost money, because he used to confide in me and
grumble at Mr. Ravengar for not giving him proper tips. Mr. Ravengar
simply sneered at him--he was very hard. Powitt had a younger brother,
who was engaged in another City office, and this younger brother also
gambled in Ravengar shares, and also lost. The two brothers gambled more
and more, and old Powitt once told me that Mr. Ravengar misled them
sometimes from sheer--what shall I call it?'

'Devilry,' Hugo suggested. 'I can believe it. That would be his idea of
a good joke.'

'By-and-by I learnt that they were in serious difficulties. Young Powitt
was married, but his wife left him--I believe he had taken to drink.
There was a glass partition between my room and Mr. Ravengar's--ground
glass at the bottom, clear glass at the top. One night, after hours, I
went back to the office for an umbrella which I had forgotten, and I
found young Powitt trying to open the petty-cash-box in my room. He had
not succeeded, and I just told him to go, and that I should forget I had
seen him there. He kissed my hand. And just then the outer door of the
office opened, and someone entered. I turned off the light in my room.
Young Powitt crouched down. It was Mr. Ravengar. He went to his own
room. I jumped on a chair, and looked through the glass screen. Old
Powitt was hanging by the neck from the brass curtain-rod in Mr.
Ravengar's room. While young Powitt was trying to get out of their
difficulties by thieving, old Powitt had taken a shorter way. Mr.
Ravengar looked at the body swinging there, and I heard him say, "Ah!"
Like that!'

'Great heaven!' cried Hugo, 'you've been through sufficient in your
time!'

'Yes.' Camilla paused. 'Mr. Ravengar cut down the body, searched the
pockets, took out a paper, read it, and put it in his own pocket. Then
the old man's lips twitched. He was not quite dead, after all. Mr.
Ravenga